Uncontrollable
by valkyria422
Summary: Novelization of Xenoblade X with an additional avatar character. Humanity is being hunted down in the far reaches of the universe by unknown alien forces. Landing on Mira, their only hope is to find the Lifehold somewhere in the planet. Two amnesiacs, Cross and X, join up with the mysterious Elma as members of BLADE to explore Mira and to save humanity from total annihilation.
1. Awakening - In a New World

**Uncontrollable**

Series Summary: A novelization of _Xenoblade X_ with an additional avatar character. Humanity is being hunted down in the far reaches of the universe by unknown alien forces. Landing on planet Mira, their only hope is to find the Lifehold somewhere in the planet. Two amnesiacs, Cross and X, join up with the mysterious Elma to uncover the secrets of Mira as members of BLADE and to save humanity from total annihilation.

 _1\. Awakening - In a New World  
_

Summary: With no past and memory, they will wake in an alien world. They will explore the new world. They will have new bonds to form. They will have new memories to make. They will have to fight to stay alive. They will bear the burden of saving the human race.

 **Notes: Cross is a blank slate personality character since he/she is supposed to reflect the player in the game. In this adaption, male Cross has a "studious" personality. (Also imagine him with the voice of Robbie Daymond, as given in the game). The second avatar character who is female, X has a "peppy" personality (Imagine her with the voice of Christina Valenzuela, also given in the game) Dialogue and actions will reflect and be based on the personalities that are chosen for the avatar characters. Actual in-game dialogue will slightly change to incorporate the fact that two avatar characters are present.** **I'll have to write fill ins of dialogue, vocal cues, and responses for scenes.** **(Big example is chapter 5 in the game… seriously.)** **I'd also have to think of conversations and banter between the two avatar characters since I'd have to make them more social as they aren't portrayed to be silent as their game counterparts. The overall story will not change.**

* * *

The first thing he noticed was that it was dark all around him. Barely seeing anything and trying to focus after opening his eyes, he could only make out shadows from the little bit of blue light that was to his left. Considering how close the shadows were creeping around him, he concluded that he was confined to a really, really small and tight container.

The loud sound of beeping echoed in his ears. It was beeping at a constant rate that was quite fast, which was about 2 beeps and nearly 3 per second. With such rhythm, he had deduced it had to be the sound of an electrocardiogram… his own heart. And his breaths were loud too. Amplified from the small containment, it was also unsteady from trying to regain composure from the long sleep he just woke up from, as well as the discomfort from the tight space he was in. He looked down to vaguely see his right hand, palm facing his own. He slowly opened and closed it… his motor functions feel… off?

"Releasing hatch. Stand clear."

A robotic sounding, female voice was heard within the tight chamber. Immediately, the small container the young man was opened in front of him, and a bright white light emerged. It was painful, and he had to shield his eyes with his right hand. It dimmed after a few seconds. As the light dimmed, a red figure appeared before the man. His vision clearing up, the figure before him was coming into focus.

"Hey there. Looks like you're in one piece."

A woman's voice. She was wearing some strange metallic armor with mostly a red color scheme, but there were traces of white and a blue-purple color in it too. The woman was dark skinned with long white hair that reached past beneath her shoulders and from closer inspection with blue eyes. She looked around in the confinement chamber that the young man was in with her flashlight. The man looked around him too to follow the light she was using. Nothing in particular was in it. All it illuminated was the small walls of the chamber, as well as the young man getting a glimpse of the clothes he was wearing: a grey shirt with yellow outlines streaked across his chest and dark pants. He was wearing a white headset on his left ear.

The woman put the flashlight away in her back right pocket. She stared at the man in the chamber, awaiting movement from him. Taking note of her body language, he placed a hand to the right side of the door area and pulled himself forward.

Immediately, a wave of weakness and tiredness hit him hard. His arms and legs felt like thin lead. He couldn't even support himself in standing up, and he fell forward.

"N-Nghh…!"

"Careful."

The white haired woman caught the young man. He was astounded on how strong she was as she caught him without taking a step back to regain balance.

"Just take it nice and slow, okay? Your senses need time to reactivate."

The words just flew right by him as he tried to clear his head and steady himself. Closing his eyes and taking a breath, he needed to get himself on his feet, for her sake too. Only now he realized the pouring rain that was drenching him as the woman got him out of that closet.

After about three seconds, he opened his eyes to take a look at his surroundings. It was dark and raining, trees before him. He was possibly in a forest of sorts…

Finally, he felt his strength returning. With his legs and knees, the young man stood up straight and the woman gave him some room by spacing herself a bit from him.

The woman examined the young man from top to bottom. Slightly taller than she was, he had a very fit build. His muscles were clearly visible from his arms and chest, and she could even see the outlines of his abdomen too. It was a bit dark to see but from the light she shined on him earlier, the young man had dull purple bluish hair. His hair was styled with bangs, with one of them reaching near the top of his nose at the center of his face and to the sides of his face that reached the bottom of his head. His hair is shorter as she looked towards the back of his head though. His eyes were an aqua blue, the similar to hers. A very noticeable feature on his face was a diagonal scar at the right side of his mouth.

The young man and the woman stared at each other in silence. He couldn't exactly examine her as his vision was still not in full focus, let alone trying to get his composure normal again.

After a few seconds of awkward silence, the woman spoke again. "Your pod was the one of the two around that landed intact. Good thing I found you."

"My name's Elma." The woman introduced herself, placing a hand on her chest. "You wanna tell me yours?"

" _My name… is…?"_ The young man drew a complete blank. Nothing. Who was he? Where'd he come from? He looked to his right in disappointment, averting his gaze from Elma. There's nothing… He couldn't even remember anything prior to waking up from that pod he was in.

"You don't even remember your own name?" Elma asked, her voice low in concern. She placed her right hand on her chin, trying to deduce what was going on. "It must be the stasis hangover…"

" _Stasis… hangover…"_ The young man said to himself in his head. It makes sense. He must have been asleep for so long and the effects on him was amnesia. And it was pretty damn strong too cause he literally couldn't remember anything at all.

"That's not good. Just try and focus, all right?"

He stared right into Elma's eyes, focusing as much as he could from the reaches of his foggy mind. " _My name… My name is…."_

And then it came to him.

"My name is… Cross." The young man replied. _"So, that's my name? It's very… unusual."_

Elma nodded. "Good… there you go. What else do you remember?

Again, nothing. Cross shook his head.

"It'll come. In the meantime, I'll get you up to speed here as best I can. How are your limbs? Can you move?"

The young amnesiac was shaking his head again. His focus was a little bit better, but his head feels a bit light. He tried opening and closing his hands too, yet it still felt slightly off. Elma noticed his posture wasn't completely straight either.

"We'll take it easy while you shake the stasis out of your system. One step at a time, all right? First thing's first… you'll be needing a weapon."

Elma reached to the back of her waist and presented it to Cross. Cross took the weapon without hesitation. He looked down at what he was holding: an assault rifle. It wasn't too heavy, but the fact that his stasis was still lingering made him underestimate the weight of it a bit. And on his right hand beneath the trigger is what seems to be a few magazine cartridges.

"There you go… All right, let's get going."

Cross jogged up to Elma and nodded after he mounted the assault rifle on his back. As soon as he took a few steps forward, it felt as if the stasis was vanishing. His vision is clear now. He no longer felt light headed, and his limbs didn't feel heavy. _"…How strange… I feel better now…"_

"How about you take point? I'll watch your back."

Cross turned around and nods in affirmation.

"You look much better after simply walking up to me."

"Y-Yes… Thank you for your concern." Cross turned back around to look at his surroundings. It was dark but Cross could tell he was in a basin of sorts, with natural cliffs to his left and right. Trees, long grass, and some boulders were scattered in front of him too. Nothing too special. But yards away a bit to his right was a glowing object. It was a circular that glowed a pink hue.

Elma remembered about the second pod that she was going to look in. "Right, that other pod… It's also intact. We should wake up the person in there."

Cross nodded. _"Another person is in there… who could it be…?"_ He asked himself as he jogged towards the light. Elma followed right behind him, keeping up his pace.

The young man looked down at the pod that was lying on the ground at his feet. It was over 9 feet long, gray and black. Unlike his pod, this was lying completely flat on the ground.

Elma stood next to Cross and then knelt down. "Allow me."

As soon as Elma lifted her left hand near the pod, a blue panel with a transparent keyboard appeared. Cross couldn't see the letters on the keyboard because it was too bright. Elma moved both of her hands on the transparent keyboard. Above it appeared a new blue screen with the following words: Log-in ID and Password.

Quickly, Elma typed in her name. And below it was a password that was censored by 16 triangles in total.

When the input of the password was completed. A loading bar quickly appeared below the password line and the words 'INDIVIDUAL RECOGNITION ATTESTATION' appeared. The words disappeared and new words that read 'MIM STASIS UNIT OPERATING SYSTEM INITIALIZING APPEARED.' showed on the screen.

Cross stared at the screen intently with his eyes narrowed. _"Is that how it works…?"_

The same robotic sounding female voice that Cross heard within the stasis pod he was in was heard again. "Attention: external access confirmed. Disengaging stasis in ten seconds… nine… eight… seven.. six…"

Elma stood up and retrieved the flashlight that was in her right pocket. She shone it above the entrance to the pod, ready to see who was inside. Cross could feel his throat tighten a bit, anxious to see who was sleeping within the pod. He closed his right fist and tightened his lips as he felt a small bit of sweat forming in his forehead.

"…five… four… three… two… one…"

After two seconds of silence after the countdown, the hatch opened slowly. And the light Elma held showed who was in it. Cross and Elma looked down at the person who just awoke lying on her back.

A girl.

She was wearing clothes the same as Cross, but it was in a different color scheme of black and green instead. The girl had black hair with black bangs covering her forehead. Her hair was short, but the hair to the side of her face was longer than the rest of her hair. Her eyes were large and dark purple. Her left ear had a white headset covering it, just like Cross. She also had slightly pink cheeks and lips. Her eyes were half opened though as Elma glared the light on her, let alone she was in darkness for who knows how long. Cross let out a quiet sigh of relief knowing that the girl was all right at least.

"A-Ahhh…" She groaned, the light stinging her eyes. Like Cross, she shielded her eyes from the light with her hands. Her voice was pretty high pitched, but it was groggy. She was seeing nothing but colors and lights. Nothing was focusing for her.

"Sorry about that. Here, let me lower the light for you." Elma moved aside her flashlight by simply holding it down to the female's feet so the light isn't as glaring to her. Cross knelt down near the entrance to the pod and peeked in. He offered his right hand to the girl. "Can you stand?"

"Uwaaah…? Uhh…." The girl blinked to get her vision focused. It was slowly getting clear. A face was coming into focus. A young man with a slightly bit long purple hair and blue eyes wearing a grey and yellow shirt. And behind him was a girl with long white hair with red armor. The girl then looked down a bit to see his right hand palm up. "H-Hold up… um… what's your name…?"

"…It's Cross." He replied, a slight grin on his face.

"Cross… uh… I feel dizzy… and weird…" The girl sighed, shaking her head.

Cross retreated his hand and nodded. "Take your time."

"The stasis will wear off. If you walk it off, it'll leave you faster, just like Cross here." Elma added, crossing her arms after she turned off and put the flashlight away

The girl blinked her eyes and tilted her head. "That so? Then…"

With her arms and hands, she forced herself to sit upward in a sitting position. Immediately, she felt her limbs feel sore, and she groaned in how uncomfortable she felt. "Geez… Talk about a terrible nap…" She muttered as she shook her head.

Elma raised an eyebrow. She was intrigued on how the two people who survived the crash landing here are so different in terms of personality, and she only met them for less than five minutes. The young man seems to be very cool and collected, and the young woman was spunky and has a sense of humor. _"How interesting…"_ She said to herself.

Cross offered his hand again to the stasis-ridden girl. "Let me help you get up."

The girl saw Cross' right hand again. This time, she placed her own on top of his. "T-Thanks a bunch, Cross."

Gently but with enough strength, Cross pulled the girl up when he clasped his fingers to hold onto the girl's hand. As soon as she stood on her two legs, she already was tipping forward from imbalance. "Owoahhh-!"

"Ah-!"

Elma was about to rush forward, but stopped as she watched Cross catch her. Supporting her from her waist and left arm, she was barely standing. The girl was caught in surprise on how strong the young man was. "S-Sorry…"

"Don't worry about it."

The girl felt her legs feel less wobbly, so she centered her weight. As soon as she did, Cross loosened his grip and eventually let go of her waist and left arm. The girl was now standing upright. Rubbing her eyes and then clapping her hands together, she said aloud, "Thank you both… Cross and… your name is?"

Elma grinned at how enthusiastic the girl was. "It's Elma."

"Elma. Thank you. Uh… my name's… er…?" The girl scratched her head with her left hand.

Cross' eyes widened. _"So… she also doesn't remember her name…?"_

"What's my name…? Wait… Who AM I? What am I doing here…? No way..." She groaned in frustration.

Elma sighed at the coincidence. "So you too… just like him."

X glanced at Cross. "What? You don't know who you are either? Well… you know your name, at least. But I don't…"

Cross placed his right hand on his chin, his index finger partially covering his lips, and said to the girl, "Why don't you concentrate? It worked for me." He closed his eyes for a second and muttered very quietly, _"She's literally just like me... she doesn't know her name or who she is at all..."_

The girl closed her eyes and crossed her arms. Cross and Elma watched her in silence, waiting for her to get her name from the foggy depths of her mind. As seconds passed, she was now mumbling to herself incomprehensible words because she said them in a very low pitch. "Nothing... I can't remember my name...! Or anything else!"

Elma shook her head. "Why don't you make one yourself for now? A temporary name until you remember your own."

Opening her eyes, the girl looked at Cross expectantly. "You got any good ideas?"

Cross nodded no. "Sorry, I don't. It's your name. You should pick it."

The girl groaned again. "Too much time wasting and this weather is a killer... How about you just call me... X? Like the letter X. It's a placeholder till I remember my real name. Sounds cool, right? Like a codename!"

Elma and Cross widened her eyes on how fast she thought of a name. Let alone a strange one. Elma muttered to herself, _"I thought Cross was a strange name. To each their own."_

Cross was more astounded of this girl's optimism and extroverted personality. _"She's quite lively..."_ He observed her quickly from head to toe as he finally got a better look at this mysterious young lady. She was much shorter than him, about nearly five inches. Her build was slender and her breasts were average sized for her height.

X rubbed her eyes with the back of her left hand, irritated with some of the rainwater that touched them. Her vision was better now and she could see Cross and Elma's faces clearly. She felt strength entering her limbs as she moved her arms and legs left and right in place. "I'm feeling a lot better now that I'm standing. Great! So um... Elma, was it? Can you tell me where I am and stuff?"

Cross realized it too. He didn't know where he was, let alone what kind of area is in the vicinity, or if there's other people like Elma nearby. Even more questions began to flood his mind. "I'd like to know as well."

"Sure. Most of the White Whale's pods didn't survive the crash... You two are of the lucky few."

Cross and X stared blankly at Elma and they said nothing. White Whale? Crash?

Elma corrected herself, asking, "Right- You both don't even remember the White Whale... do you? You know, the L-002? The ship we escaped Earth on? You... remember Earth, right?"

Cross looked down on the dampened ground in disappointment, while X shook her head.

"Planet Earth... Your homeworld. Or rather, it used to be, anyway." Elma tried to explain as much as she can. With each question and reminder, her hope for those two remembering what terrible events that happened two months ago was dwindling.

"Unfortunately," Elma continued. "It was caught in a battle between two alien forces and destroyed. Ring any bells?"

"...Nothing..." X muttered.

"Mm. Nothing as well." Cross added.

"Don't feel bad. It's one memory I'd like to forget."

As soon as Elma finished her sentence, she, Cross, and X heard the sound of rustling. X was the first to turn around to her back and see a large insect walking around the three of them. "Ah...!" She gasped.

Cross was alerted by X's uneasiness and faced the same direction as she did. Elma shook her head. "I know. It's been following me for a while now."

Elma drew an assault rifle from her back and approached X with the gun. X looked down at the rifle and asked, "You mean..." She takes the gun off of Elma's hands and examines it. Elma also hands a few magazines of the assault rifle to her.

The white haired woman nods at X's assumption. She draws her two machine guns from her back and points them directly at the insect in front of them. "I didn't want to alarm you, but we're going to need to defend ourselves. You up to the task?"

"Y-Yeah...!" X laughed nervously as she points the assault rifle towards the large insect and her right index finger on the trigger.

Cross draws the assault rifle from his back that Elma gave him early and does the same as X. He frowns as he watches the large insect in front of them begins to let out an eerie cry and its wings began to flutter, signalling its attack stance.

"Go! Fire!" Elma cries out, and she herself begins to fire her two machine guns. The insect was flinching a bit from the hail of bullets bombarding it, but soon it begins it advance towards the party.

"R-Right!" X calls out, pulling the trigger from the assault rifle and holding down on it. Cross pulls the trigger as well.

X was caught off guard by the recoil of the assault rifle, so her initial aim was off as the bullets were slightly missing the insect's body. Gripping onto the rifle tighter and steadying her stance by balancing her weight, the bullets were now hitting the main body of the insect. Even the insect was flinching from her more accurate aim. With three streams of bullets firing from the same direction, the insect was slowing its advance, but it was still moving forward. It was about six feet away from Elma, who was standing closer to it. "There we go!" She cheerfully cries out. As soon as she said so, her gun falls silent from the empty magazine. "Great..."

As X was reloading Elma was moving away from the two by moving to her right, spacing herself away from them. "Let's split its attention, but I'll keep it on me. Spread out!"

"Got it!" Cross replies, moving towards the opposite direction from where Elma was heading as he reloaded his assault rifle. X remained where she was standing. The insect was now moving towards where Elma stood. The new orientation was the insect was a mere three feet away from Elma, with Cross standing six feet behind the insect and X was seven feet to the right of the insect.

The insect was now within attacking range of its pincers to hit Elma. It screeches as it raises one of its pincers. Immediately, Elma jumps backwards and the attack misses. Again, the insect raises its other pincer and slashes forward. Elma immediately jumped back and the attack missed again, but she was caught by surprise that the insect followed up immediately its first miss. The pincer grazes arm, leaving a scratch on her armor. "Tch!" It didn't hurt much, but she growled at her own mistake of not thinking of a follow-up attack.

Cross sees an opportunity to attack the insect as it was distracted by Elma. _"I think I can topple it...!"_ He said to himself.

Running forward, Cross grips onto the assault rifle horizontally and holds it towards his right. As soon as he was within range, with all his strength, he grunts and swings the assault rifle from his right to left, smashing the gun against the insect. The insect cries as it falls over to its side. Elma and X and astounded by Cross' quick thinking. "Down you go! Open fire!" He cries out to Elma and X as he begins to fire down at the bug.

"Good thinking, Cross!" X cheerfully yells at Cross as she begins to fire on the toppled insect. "Make some space, I'll burn that thing right up!"

"Understood!" Cross replies, moving backwards, creating distance between himself and the helpless bug struggling to get up.

"Okay... My turn!" X yells out loudly as she saw Cross to be about five feet away from the bug. Instead of a hail of bullets shooting out of her assault rifle, a large grenade falls towards the insect. As soon as it hit the bug, it explodes with fire emitting from the grenade. The insect screeches loudly and rolls around the ground as it is being incinerated from the explosion. "Yeah! Got it!"

"Good job, X!" Cross complimented as he continues to fire at the bug.

"Great! I'll finish it off!" Elma replies, moving towards the right side of the insect as it struggles to stand up. She then runs towards it and fires her gun, diving down on the ground as she fires.

After Elma fires her rounds as she dives down onto the ground and gets back on her feet, the insect cries out a very loud screech that quickly grows silent. It twitches its body and finally stops moving. Elma, Cross, and X stops firing and remove their fingers from the triggers of their guns.

X sighs as she lowers her assault rifle and mounts it on her back. "Whew! What a rush!"

Cross and Elma also mount their weapons on their backs and approach the girl. Elma smiles at the two, saying, "Hmm, you both are not half bad." And idea hit her as soon as she complimented them. "There's plenty of work back in the city for those who know how to handle a weapon, you know."

"Really?" X asks, clasping her hands together. Cross nods and smiles, not saying a word.

Elma herself was smiling at their interest. "So you both are interested. In that case, I might have the jobs for you both. But anyway, we can talk more details later. For now, let's keep moving." She begins to walk forward deeper in the basin past the dead insect, with Cross and X following right behind her.

Not even a minute after they started walking, X faces Cross and asks, "So, what do you think this job Elma is referring to?"

Cross turns to his right and looks down on X, replying, "I'd assume to eliminate hostile monsters like what we just fought. You would take on such a job?"

"Of course! The adrenaline rush is so great! Elma says we're not half bad, so why not?" She answers immediately, grinning widely.

"Just because of that...? Wait..." Cross covers his mouth and chin with his right hand. His pace was slowing down, so X had to slow down her pace too.

"Wh-What? Something up?" X asks, a bit of worry in her tone. From Cross' pose, she could tell that he caught onto something important.

Cross asks X with his voice slightly muffled since he was covering his own mouth, "Strangely we know nothing of our pasts or the events that lead up to us being here... but we know how to fight...?"

"Uh... Good point...? But hey, we know other things like... 1 + 1 = 2?"

Cross sighs and shakes his head, now lowering his right hand to his side. "For example... how did you know the assault rifle also fired grenades? Elma never told you that."

"Ohh..." X was awed by Cross' point. Then it hit her: how DID she know how to fight? "You're right..."

"I can assume you know how to wield a weapon such as a knife?"

"I-I do... So what does this mean...?"

"...I'm not sure yet, maybe-"

Elma interrupts Cross, calling out. "You two are falling behind! Keep up the pace! Also, pay attention to your surroundings! We might get attacked again!"

"R-Right! Sorry!" X replied, waving her right hand to acknowledge Elma's warnings. "Let's talk about this later when we get out of this place."

"Good idea." Cross nodded.

Elma stops her advance, staring at the herd of sleeping animals around a lake that were a few meters ahead of her. They appear to have some resemblance towards Earth's hippos, but larger. They were all on the small lakeside lying down and snoring loudly away. As soon as Cross and X caught up with Elma, X looked at the animals in disdain. "We have to navigate through that...?"

"They won't wake up unless you attack it." Elma informed the two. "Come, we'll go around them."

To the left of the party was an elevated area with some rocks that have fallen above that make a path around the small lake. Elma jogs towards this area with Cross and X not far behind. "Let's get up here." With a quick jump, Elma reaches the elevated path and walks ahead. With ease and hardly any effort, Cross and X leaped up the elevated path to follow Elma.

Luckily, there weren't any monsters that were within the party's vicinity. The closest one were three flying insects that were smaller than the one the party fought earlier to their right, but it didn't take notice of them as they were at least ten feet away from them. "As long as we don't make sudden loud noises, it won't attack us."

"Pretty sure that's like... all monsters, right?" X asks, raising her eyebrow and smirking.

"Still keep your guard up. We're lucky we don't have to run into bigger ones here..."

"B-Bigger ones...?" X hesitantly asks for clarification. She didn't need to press further as common sense dictates that the three different species of monsters saw were only a molecule of an iceberg tip.

Cross shook his head and said nothing. _"I'd hate to fight them..."_

"And speaking of that... We're almost there..." The party near an open cliffside, and no longer they were surrounded by two high natural basin walls. Elma looks up and ahead to see the night sky slowly fading to daylight as the sky was growing from a pitch black to a gray. Also, the rain was no longer pouring hard and was beginning to fall into a drizzle.

Elma comments on the weather, saying, "The rain is starting to let up. Just in time for sunrise." She turns to Cross and X, saying, "Follow me. I promise, you're gonna love this."

Elma leads the two a few paces forward at the edge of a cliff. Cross and X stand to Elma's left, with X being in the middle. X could feel her heart beat faster with anticipation and Cross didn't even realize himself holding his breath as to what Elma was going to show them.

Ahead is fog that was disappearing into the gray sky. The drizzle was now disappears, and bright daylight now stretches and pierces the clouds and fog that permeate the horizon. The sky turns from a dark gray to a light gray and now a light blue.

The world unfolded. A vast green landscape with towering rock formations that are strangely being held up. Trees and grass cover the ground. White clouds float in the light blue sky. A large moon was visible in the sky too, with a smaller one about a 1/8th of its size to its left. To the right of the party was something that was not of this area: a large circular ring with green crystals as its foundation. Cross and X could see the words etched to its side reading 'New Los Angeles' and to the left of the side is a rectangle with white stars in a blue background in the upper left corner and red and white stripes at the rest of the whole rectangle. Above the ring appears to be some contraptions and beyond it was a large tower and slightly smaller buildings next to it.

"Wooahhhhh...!" X gaped at the landscape that was in front of them. "Amazing...!" She squeals, her voice cracking.

"..." Not even a word came out of Cross' mouth, since he was too amazed on what was before him.

Suddenly the ground was shaking. "Huh?" X was looking down to find the cause of it. Even Cross was interrupted by the shaking that he looked down as well. Elma, strangely, didn't move.

And the two figured out what the cause of the shaking was when it appeared right in front of them. A gray and green colored long necked creature suddenly lifted its head and let out a low cry, as if it was waking up from its sleep. Its eyes were very big found at the left and right ends of its head. Near its head along the back of its neck were four antennae-like structures, and at the end of its very long neck was its large body with extensions on its back. Cross and X couldn't see the lower half of its body, but assumed it had four legs. It begins to walk forward.

As the two stare in awe at the large creature, they were caught off guard by the sound of loud cry of a different creature from behind them. Cross and X turn their left to see a large fish-like monster that flies right by them. It was mainly gray and silver colored with light blue wings found throughout its body. The wings look like a strange mix of the wings of a insect and bird, with the vanes of the wing appear to be of a birds but the regimes look like the regimes of an insect. There is one large wing on the left and right side, about three or four smaller wings slanted on the spine of the monster, and many on its tail. The monster flies towards the ocean, with a second and third monster just like it flying by too.

"Pretty wild, huh?" Elma asks, interrupting Cross and X's observation of the landscape. The two face Elma. "They're all indigenous, as far as we can tell." She looks ahead towards the scenery in front of them. "We need to learn to play nice with these guys if we're going to try and coexist together.

Cross and X smile, turning back towards the world ahead of them. Coexistence in this vast and beautiful world that they've only gotten a glimpse of... Their new home.

* * *

 **A/N: After 257 hours to finishing the story and clocking total gameplay time to over 330 hours, the urge to write this up was intense. Even moreso at the fact that I wish I had two of my own avatar characters to play with at the same time T_T**

 **Throughout the game, I changed appearances of Cross with mainly two avatar characters: the ones featured here in this fanfiction. The male Cross was for story and affinity sidequests, while female Cross was for other the rest of the sidequests, grinding, exploration, and flying around. Their personalities are so different and enjoyable that I hated switching their appearances over and over. So my thought was, what if there were 2 avatars in the story at the same time?**

 **If you want actual images of their appearances, check my profile for my sketches and in-game screenshots. Their appearances are based on the two main characters from the Final Fantasy Type 0 prequel manga. Reason is that the main character does literally share the same VA, and the other in my opinion would fit her personality and voice perfectly.**

 **As for thinking of a name for female Cross, yeah I'm unoriginal /shrugs**

 **School is pretty much tomorrow and it is a crossroad since it is the worst semester in terms of chemistry classes all over as well as the application to my undergrad program. I don't know when the next update will be, as well as for the other Xenoblade fanfiction. Until then, I appreciate any reviews and criticism.  
**


	2. Beginning - In New Los Angeles

**Uncontrollable**

Series Summary: A novelization of _Xenoblade X_ with an additional avatar character. Humanity is being hunted down in the far reaches of the universe by unknown alien forces. Landing on planet Mira, their only hope is to find the Lifehold somewhere in the planet. Two amnesiacs, Cross and X, join up with the mysterious Elma to uncover the secrets of Mira as members of BLADE and to save humanity from total annihilation.

 _2\. Beginning - In New Los Angeles_

Summary: They will make their way to the city, where the last of humanity lives on. They will meet new faces and become acquainted with them. Learning of their situation, they decide to join in the organization that will carve out the path to the future as well as defend themselves from unknown and treacherous forces. They will join BLADE.

 **Notes: There will be a slight change with additional dialogue being added in the beginning of this chapter that is not in the original game. It is nothing major though. Also, some story introduction scenes such as the tour of the city from the transport ship and the tour of the administrative district has been omitted and simply summarized within a paragraph or two for length and pacing's sake.**

 **Considering how somewhat detailed I am in terms of adding all essential story events, as well as to advance the story to the main events, battles that will be written will only be forced battles. All normal and affinity missions will not be written here, instead they will be in a separate story to tie in with this fanfiction, which will be called _Duality._ It is currently in development. Likewise with this fanfiction, Cross and X will maintain the studious and peppy personality with their associated voices respectively.**

* * *

Elma was amazed on how long Cross and X could take in the sights of Mira. She couldn't blame them: she herself was like this too when she first arrived two months ago. She was chuckling to herself as she watched X barraged Cross with positive comments about Mira and her excitement, such as "Did you SEE that monster? It was huge!" and "I can't wait to explore this place! Who knows what's out there?!" Cross was taken aback by the sights that he only answered short responses of "Yes", "Me too", and quiet nods. As she bombarded Cross with questions and comments, X wondered to herself, _"Cross is weird... this is a big, awesome looking planet. He doesn't seem to be excited as I am about this..."_

When X finally calmed down in her overwhelming enthusiasm and excitement, Elma spoke up, saying, "Recognize the Habitat unit? That's where we're headed."

The two amnesiacs look straight ahead at the large circular ring that featured the words 'New Los Angeles.' Already X was walking forward towards the settlement, saying, "Okay! Let's go, let's go!" She calls out, raising her right hand up in the air, pumped up with excitement.

"H-Hey, wai-" Cross calls out to X, about to take a step forward.

"Watch yourself-" Elma interrupts Cross, raising her voice a little louder to get the hasty X to stop moving. "That first step's a doozy."

X stopped in her tracks and looked ahead. "Uh… woah-!" She exclaimed, seeing what's near her feet. She was standing near the edge of a cliff. Ahead of the rocks was crystal blue water below. And the height was quite big just from a glance of it. At least a forty feet drop. "T-Thanks for the save! I'd sort of hate to fall down there, Elma… Heheh…" X blushed, stepping back away from the cliffside.

Cross groaned, shaking his head. He hated the mere thought of running down and finding a path towards the beachside to find X, let alone worry about her well-being. Heck, he'd probably had to jump in after her. Elma replies, "We can jump if you like- you both can handle the fall. But the indigens down there are another story. Some big, some mean- all nasty."

X felt a shiver down her spine at the suggestion and warning, but she was also feeling a bit of adrenaline swelling up. After seeing those two different large monsters, she wanted to see what was down there. However, she already knew that Cross would be totally against jumping down.

Cross wasn't hung over the latter part of Elma's suggestion, but the former. _"We could handle the fall…?"_

Elma turns to her left, making Cross and X look in the same direction she was in. To their left was more cliffs and ground below, but there was a natural bridge that connected two cliffsides. Further down that bridge lead towards the direction of the city.

"Given our options, the high road here would be the safer way to go, relatively speaking. That said… whichever way you want to go, I'll follow your lead. You two decide."

"Well isn't it obvious?" X grinned, pointed towards the direction of the high bridge. "We'll take that bridge!"

Cross nods. "I agree. We'll take the bridge."

"Though…" X points towards the water below the cliffside. "It would be nice to see the baddies down there! Who knows what we'll see? Fish, jellyfish? Oooh! Maybe even shar-"

"No. Please, no." Cross quickly interrupts X, slightly frowning at the girl's absurd idea.

X puffed her cheeks slightly as she expressed disappointment and a bit of annoyance towards Cross. "Killjoy…" She muttered quietly.

Cross frowned a little more at X's negative comment towards him. _"How could she take this so lightly…?"_

Elma chuckled at the playful bickering. "Okay, okay. Enough. And here." Elma takes a few steps forward towards Cross and X, pulling something from the back with both of her hands. Cross and X looked down at Elma's hands to see what she was showing them.

They were two knives. Silver colored and simple in design, the knives were actually a bit large. Elma was gripping onto the knives' handles and it covered about 80% of the handle. The blade was about 30% larger than the handle, so the length of the knives in total were about seven inches with a 3 inch diameter. It appears to be larger because of the sheath the knives were being carried in. Cross deduced that the length must be due to durability for cutting the monsters here on Mira. They were large after all, and having a weapon break in battle is a death sentence.

"You'll be needing these to protect yourselves in close combat. Also use it to support each other."

"Thanks, Elma! I'll do my best!" X grinned, taking the knife and its sheath from Elma' left hand. She proceeded to buckle the sheath and the knife on her right hip. X was caught a bit off guard by the weight of the knife on her side, but she felt secure and ready, knowing she has two weapons at her disposal.

Cross bowed slightly towards Elma, quietly saying, "Thank you." He takes the remaining knife and does the same as X.

Elma smiled, replying, "No need to be so formal. We're not exactly strangers. Plus, less than an hour of simply being around you both got me a good idea on how you two are. Which I could say you both are really, really unique."

"Gosh, that sounds a lot coming from you. Thanks!" X's demeanor was greater now with Elma's comment, her smile widening. Cross was smiling too, but he was about to laugh at how X takes in such flattery. He had to hold himself back.

"Now. Let's be off." She glances at X. "Take the lead."

"Oookay!" She exclaims, raising her right hand up in the air and jogs ahead.

Elma was astounded at her energy. She glances at Cross, who was staring at her. "She's something, isn't she?" She asked, grinning.

Cross took a quick glance at Elma and replied, "She's strange, I'll give you that." He started to move as well, facing towards the direction of where X ran off and moving away from Elma to avoid her conversation by jogging. He also had to hide the very, very slightly red shade of color that that appeared on his face...

—

It took a very long time to get to the natural bridge, cross it, and head deeper into the plains to approach the entrance of the large city. Though the path towards the bridge was somewhat linear, X was sidetracked so often to explore every nook and cranny of the cliffsides, much to Cross' impatience. Additionally, there was a checkpoint made by a group of people from the city made that included shelter, which Elma suggested for Cross and X to take advantage of. She was worried for their well-being, as they only woke up a few hours ago, let alone their bodies may still be in stasis though Cross and X do not feel the effects of it anymore. Even though they only fought two battles against a group of three boars and two sheep without any scratches prior to heading towards the rest area, Elma wanted to be cautious. Much to X's dismay, they rested for an hour, restocked in ammunition, and headed off.

It was about 2 PM as they approached the large gates of the city, taking longer than usual as the three fought monsters along the way. The two amnesiacs fought marvelously with only a knife and assault rifle, but moreso with X, as she was more adept than Cross with the knife. Approaching their destination, X stretched her arms out and sighed with relief. "Ahhh, so great! Who knew I'd be so great with a knife?"

Cross nodded, impressed as he experienced her skill with the weapon firsthand. She has been dexterously slicing up the monsters they fought. Cross opted to stay back, supporting X and Elma from the sidelines and healing them up when needed. Cross wasn't too bad with the knife, but he had to admit X was more skillful with it. "You're better than I am with the knife. Guess it's not too much of my forte."

Elma evesdropped in their conversation, suggesting to Cross and X, "There are other weapons you can choose from, you know. When we get to the city, I can show you what we have. Also, if you'd like, we can all spar to hone our abilities."

X scratched the side of her left cheek, saying, "I think I'm good with the knife. But you can show me your other guns. I'm so curious!"

Cross agreed to Elma's proposal, nodding his head. "I'd like to take you on those offers. Thank you."

Elma smiled. _"These two aren't too bad… I look forward to seeing what they can truly do…"_

It was still a bit of a jog to get there, but the entrance was in plain sight. The large outer ring of New Los Angeles seemed bigger than ever. A large gateway that was over 30 feet wide and tall was before the party. However, it was closed. To the left of the gateway seemed to be walkways upwards to lead above the ring.

Elma asks Cross and X, "Looks a lot bigger up close, doesn't it?"

The two placed their attention on her. "And this was just the Habitat unit. The White Whale was one hell of a ship. Until it all came crashing down, at least."

"Geez…" X muttered, amazed by Elma's information. If that was only the place where people lived in in the White Whale, the ship must have been at least five times larger to hold that unit. The thought was mind boggling for her.

"That's the west gate." Elma points ahead. It's closed off for now for security reasons. But we've repurposed a freight elevator that will get us in…side…"

Cross looked concerned when he noticed Elma barely finished her sentence. He immediately knew. Turning around to his left to see what Elma was staring at, it was a monster, looking down on them. X could feel adrenaline in her body already, grinning.

It was a large monster over 14 feet long, about 6 feet tall, and 5 feet wide. Four legs, it appeared looked like a strange mix of a lizard and a wolf at the same time. It's unique feature is its tail. At the end of the long tail appeared to look like a blade. The beast raised its head and howled, likely to be calling reinforcements.

"Grexes? And they're riled." Elma commented after her quick observation.

As soon as she finished her sentence, pairs of footsteps were heard from behind the party. Elma, Cross, and X turned around to see two more grexes walking closer to them. The three grexes paced themselves and approached the party, now surrounding the three. Elma warns the two, saying, "We can't leave them roaming here- not this close to the gate. We're gonna have to take them down."

X's heart was beating in excitement. "Ooooh… I'm excited…!" She squealed, moving backward. Elma, Cross, and X stood in a circular formation with their backs on each other about 2 feet apart.

Cross shook his head. "Don't get careless… They look more dangerous than all the other monsters we fought so far." He warned, his tone slightly lower than usual.

X simply grinned at Cross' warning. Elma asks the two, "You ready?"

"I'm ready all right… to slice them up!" X replies, drawing her knife with her right hand and assuming her battle stance. Her legs are spaced apart and she held the knife in a reverse hold, with the blade facing forward and handle towards her.

Cross drew his assault rifle from his back, aiming at the grex in front of him steadily. "I'm ready." He answers Elma.

"Okay. Take them down!" Elma cried out, drawing two swords from her back from their sheathes and charges right at the grex in front of her. In response, the other grexes began to turn their attention to her, but the one in front of her was awaiting her attack. Dashing forward she took a sharp turn to her right and the grex didn't have time to move its body fully to face her. She leaps upward and slashes both swords downwards. The grex growled, and blood began to pour down from its body from its large wound. Elma leaps back and yells, "Go topple it, Cross!"

"Roger that!" Cross replies, dashing towards the grex that Elma injured. Again, he swings the assault rifle from his right to his left, slamming it against the grex's body. The grex, however, didn't topple. It did stagger around a bit but the grex regained its balance after a few steps. In retaliation, it leaps forward at Cross, swiping its left paw at him. Cross immediately jumped backward to avoid the attack, but barely as it nearly slashed his right arm as it was oriented outward as he was holding the assault rifle.

Cross was surprised on how resilient it was, muttering, "Damn it, it's much more sturdier than it looks...!" X was closing her position towards Cross, calling out, "Don't worry! We'll get him down!"

"R-Right...!"

X knew that she couldn't be reckless here unlike the monsters fought earlier, so she withheld herself from attacking up front for now, hoping for an opportunity to come by without any risk of retaliation. Hence, she switched weaponry to her assault rifle and began to fire away at the same grex that Cross attacked.

Elma noticed the second grex charging right at her and attacking the same way it attacked Cross. She raised her blades upward in an " X " formation, blocking the attack. Immediately after the attack was halted, she made space by taking one step back and slashing in the formation, slicing its paw. The grex howled as its red blood began to pour out. It is also limping now since the paw was injured.

Without needing any sign, Cross noticed the limping grex and attempted to topple that grex. With one swing, the grex fell over, and it whimpered as it fell over. "Move in!" Cross called out, signalling either Elma or X to attack.

"Okay! Time to finish one off!" X happily yelled out as she dashed to the beast lying on its side. Positioning herself to the right of the toppled beast, she dashes and slashes the beast with one quick cut. Simultaneously with her attack, Elma positioned herself on near the grex's tail leaps up, slashing both of her blades down on the grex.

With the two attacks combined, the grex howled louder than usual, shaking violently from the pain and quickly grows silent and still.

"ONE DOWN! HAHA!" X cheered, holding onto her knife tighter than usual.

"Good work, let's finish off the other two!"

The third grex that was closest to X began to walk cautiously forward at Elma. It appears to be wary of Elma's threat as she was engaging the first grex with hit and run attacks. Cross was maintaining distance between him and Elma as he barraged it with bullets, wary of the third grex that was approaching Elma.

X took advantage of the two grexes attention centered on Elma and began to run at the grex closest to her. "This is for you!" She yelled, jumping high from the ground. She jumped quite high, reaching 3/4ths the height of the grex's tail standing upwards and with both hands on the handle and knife pointed down, stabs the grex on its back. The grex howled in pain, shaking violently to get the knife and X off of it.

"W-Woahhh!" X was losing her balance as she was hanging off the knife. She pulled the knife out with some difficulty and grunting and jumps off. The grex was staggering but notices X, now growling at her and began to charge. Unfortunately, X did not land on her feet readily and was on one knee. The grex was now mere feet away raising a paw to attack.

"Ahhhhhhh-!" X screeched, raising her right arm in defense.

"Watch out-!"

X was pushed away with such force that her feet were no longer on the ground, and she fell over to her right side. She didn't even see it, but Cross pushed her to her right, taking her place. The grex swiped at Cross, slashing the side of his left shoulder and even his face. The grex leaped back after the attack and stood in an offensive position.

"Aghhh-!" Cross cried out in pain, on the ground and placing his hand over his injury on his left shoulder. He grimaced as he felt the very sharp pain equivalent to a longsword slicing him shoot through his arm, and even dull pain on the side of his face.

Furious, X growled and began to scream in anger as she got up and charged at grex that attacked Cross. "You'll pay for this-!" She yelled, running at to position herself at the grex's side. Swiftly, she mounted her assault rifle and takes the knife out, blade facing forward. "Die!" She yells, quickly dashing forward and with one smooth motion and with all her strength, slashes the grex on its side, swinging her right arm from left to right.

"RAAAAHH!" The grex cries out, falling over to its side and becoming motionless.

X, panting in exhaustion and anger, lowers her knife. She didn't hear any more sudden sounds from the distance as she turned around. At a distance, X could see Elma placing her two swords back on their sheathes behind her back. The grex she was fighting was sliced up on the ground. Immediately, she ran towards Cross, who was sitting on the grass, examining his arm.

Still somewhat grimacing and growling in pain, Cross lifted his sleeve up,which he was surprised that the material was extremely sturdy as it was not shredded or tattered. There was a shallow cut and lack of blood. The cut was so shallow that it was comparable to a paper cut. Cross narrowed his eyes in concern and in confusion, asking himself, _"I expected there to be a large wound and a lot of blood... why is it such a minor cut that is hardly noticeable? It certainly didn't feel like it..."_

"Cross! Are you okay?!" X calls out, as she ran towards and kneels next to him. She also examined his shoulder, asking, "Does it hurt still? I'm sorry, I can heal you right up...!"

"No, I'm... fine...?" Cross replied, uncertain of his condition. For some reason, the pain was subsiding in his arm very, very quickly. Also, he didn't feel the pain on his left cheek anymore either.

Elma finally caught up between the two amnesiacs, asks, "That was a close call. Are you severely injured, Cross?"

Standing up, Cross shakes his head. "No. Now I feel as if the attack never happened..." He answers, his voice growing more quiet as he finished his response.

X also stands up, and she scratches lightly her right cheek. "Weird, you recovered so quickly while you just sat there..."

"You're a tough guy to crack then." Elma smirked. She glanced around to see if there were any more hostile monsters nearby. Nothing. It was only her, Cross, and X.

"It's a shame we had to settle near so much wildlife... Luckily, some species aren't so hostile. But they aren't necessarily friendly, either."

Elma turns around to face Cross and X who are looking at her with anticipation. She continues, saying, "I've come to learn that there's a fine line between self-defense... and provoking a fight. We need to walk that line."

X grinned widely on her advice. "I agree! We should be careful from here on!"

"Mm." Cross answers quietly, nodding. He looks at X afterward, raising an eyebrow slightly. _"Her temperament is all over the place... She was worried about me for one second and now sounds as if she's ready to kill another monster? Where does this energy come from?"_

At the corner of her eye, X sees Cross looking at her strangely. She turns her head to see him, asking, "Is something the matter?"

"N-No..." Cross quickly shakes his head. "It's nothing..."

"Err... o-okay then."

Elma notices the two were finished talking, and tells the two, "All right, let's head in. Who knows- maybe seeing the inside will jog both of your memories."

Elma began to walk towards the gate. Cross and X follow behind her, walking side by side. As they walked, X taps Cross in the arm. Cross looks to his right and asks, "What is it, X?"

"I-I'm sorry for being reckless back there. You got hurt because of my attack. I should have been the one getting hurt, not you."

Immediately, Cross replied as he stops walking forward, "It's okay. It wasn't too bad. Let's just be careful from here on out. Besides, I know you'd do the same as I did. It's good to know that you also have my back."

X also stops her advance. "Right!" She winked, making a number two gesture with her right hand. Her index and middle fingers were pointed upward while her ring and pinky fingers were pointed downward towards her thumb, which was pointed diagonally upward.

X was anticipating a peace-sign gesture from Cross too. Instead, all he did was smile back.

Playfully pouting, she tells Cross, "Don't leave me hanging! Come on, a good gesture! We did a great job fighting back there! It'll be our cheer from now on!"

"Uhh..." Instead of doing a thumbs up gesture, Cross uses his right thumb and index finger to make a circle and the remaining fingers pointed upward. "Will this do...?"

X giggled and elbowed him on his arm. "Fits you to a T to be using the nerdy gestures."

"Nerdy...?"

Elma, who was yards ahead, didn't hear Cross and X's footsteps anymore. Turning around, she sees how far they've fallen behind. Sighing, she calls out "Hey! We all need to be on the lift, you know!"

"Coming!" X calls out, dashing towards Elma to close in the distance. Cross jogs right behind her, feeling more energetic than before.

—

After walking up sets of stairs and riding the lift (which X could not contain her excitement for), the three begin to walk down a narrow corridor towards the city entrance. As they walk forward, Cross and X begin to see a buildings grow larger and larger. One building particularly stood out the most, as it was the tallest in the area. What's unique about it was the large number that appeared at the top: 60%. Arriving at the end of the corridor and towards the catwalk that would lead toward a lift to their right, the three walked to the end of the walkway.

"Woahhhhhhhhh-!" X gaped again as she was beginning to see the city clearer and clearer.

Like before, Cross was at loss for words. He could only gasp at the sight before him.

Elma leaned on the walkway edges, sighed and brushed a bit of her hair aside against the wind. "Well? Here we are. Not too shabby, huh? For a giant beached spaceship, anyway. But... like it or not, this place is our home now."

Cross and X place their full attention on Elma, who's back is turned to them as she continued to stare off into the city.

"We took the name from the city it was modeled after back on Earth." Turning around to face the two amnesiacs, she continued, "We call it New Los Angeles. Welcome to NLA."

X was first to walk to Elma's side to continue to gaze upon the great city before her. Cross followed, standing to her left. To their very left was the taller buildings of the city, including the largest tower. Connecting that area were smaller, linear roads with large gaps in between them, as if they were still in construction. One road has been completed, however, connecting to a second area of buildings that were much shorter. Across from this area was another area that had many more buildings that with trees spaced in between. There also appeared to be a large cathedral in the distance as well. Around the entire base of the city were cranes and many other large structural equipment. The city was still in construction, but it appeared to be making quick progress.

"New Los Angeles..." Cross breathlessly whispered in awe.

"Our new home..." X finished off Cross' sentence.

As the two stared into the great city, Elma smiled as well and began to gaze at the city as well. A sight she would never tire to see.

—

They spent about five minutes or so to gaze upon the great city. Like before, X was positively commenting on the sights loudly with Cross replying short answers and vocal cues. As their commentary died down, Elma faces the two and asked them, "How about a quick tour of the facilities to refreshen both of your memories?"

"We get to see the whole city?! Yes! Yes!" X hastily replied excitedly. Cross only nods quietly.

Elma nods back and grins at X's enthusiasm. "Let's start with your living quarters. Follow me."

Elma begins to walk away towards the elevator lift to their right. The two follow right behind her and stand in the middle of the lift as Elma uses the control panel at the end of the lift to activate the elevator. A second after using the panel, the elevator begins to slowly move down. As the elevator moved, a loud voice echoed in the three's ears. Cross and X looked around for the source of the voice, only to realize seconds later that it was a powerful intercom projecting the voice. It sounded like a middle-aged man speaking. They hear the following:

"Brave citizens of New Los Angeles: Good day. This is your director general, Maurice Chausson. Today, I once again come to you with news I am truly delighted to share."

Elma faces towards the largest tower of the city, prompting Cross and X to stare at it too. Suddenly, the large number 60% disappears and an image of a man was being shown. As Cross and X guessed, it was a middle-aged man who appeared to be in his 40s or 50s with blonde hair wearing a tan suit and a red necktie. Words appeared below the footage.

He continues speaking, saying, "Yesterday, we repatriated 10 more White Whale crew members. These fellow pioneers will rejoin our ranks as citizens of NLA, bringing with them skills and know-how that will bolster our ability to survive- and indeed flourish- here in our new home. This, of course, is only the latest success in our continuing efforts-"

As soon as the director general finished that sentence, the lift came to a halt, having Elma, Cross, and X on the lower level of the lift. While Elma uses the panel again to lower the gate of the lift, Cross covered his mouth and chin with his right hand again. It was only one time that he'd done this gesture, but X could tell that he was in deep thought, and posture just became a habit of his. "Look at you in that pose again... Got something?" She asked, smiling.

Cross, still in his posture moves his eyes to look at X and asked her with his voice slightly muffled, "...You think we are two of those ten?"

"I think so. We're fresh off the boat, you know!"

"He mentioned yesterday. Has it really been a day since we were found?"

"Uhh... now that you mentioned it... it was pretty late at night Elma found us so technically... it is yesterday?"

"And ten? Elma mentioned that we were the only two that survived intact..."

X touched her forehead with her left index finger and mutters, "Well, it's pretty precise if all ten fell in that basin. Maybe they are scattered and other people like Elma found them. So... yeah! We're two of the ten! 20%!" She cheerfully replied, then quickly elbowed Cross, making him lose his posture. "You're overthinking this. Loosen up!" She then begins to walk away from the lift to follow Elma.

"Okay." Cross nods and follows X. _"Why lie about it if that's the case...?_

Elma stopped her pace to look up the video feed, with her recruits behind her taking point. ""Director general?" Since when?"

A female voice answers her, replying, "Two days ago, ma'am." Two sets of strides echoed in their ears, and the three turn around to see who answered her question.

A male voice adds, "From "political aide" to "director general" in just a few weeks... At this rate, he'll be "emperor" by next month."

Elma calls out to the two who answered her. "Irina. Gwin."

The two people salute to her. Cross and X examined the two acquainted individuals to Elma. Irina and Gwin were wearing roughly the same uniform in a different color scheme. Irina was wearing a black and white shirt beneath her purple vest lined with ammunition on both sides. She was also wearing dark pants and black fingerless gloves. Gwin was wearing the same type of clothes, but the shirt he wore beneath the best was fully black and the best itself was green. Irina had short, straight, white hair that reached to the sides of her face just like X with dark eyes. Gwin had short brown hair that was somewhat unsymmetrical. His bangs on the left side of his face was normal but on the right side was sticking upward. Gwin was also two inches taller than Irina.

"Nice work out there, ma'am." Irina complimented as she and Gwin lowered their right hands.

"Could you introduce them, Elma?" X asks, showing interest on the two friendly faces. Cross nods at the suggestion, as if X read his mind.

"Right, introductions: Irina Akulov. Gwin Evans."

Irina asked, "These are two of the survivors, Colonel?"

Elma nods. "The TWO survivors. I only found two pods intact at Starfall Basin."

Cross frowned slightly and looked down at the ground. _"I knew it..."_

X noticed Cross' mood dampen as his question earlier was falling into place. _"He suspected that the director general guy was lying...?"_

Gwin was surprised at Elma's revelation. He asked her, "Wait, what?! What happened to "10 more crew members"?"

Irina answered him immediately, "Come on, seriously? Chausson was never one to let truth get in a way of a good speech." Irina glances at the two survivors and continues, "Still, every last survivor counts. You both can call me Irina. I'm with the Interceptors."

Gwin adds in with a bit of arrogance in his tone, "Me too, same division. You both can call me "Mr. Evans." With lack of a response from Cross and X, Gwin lowered his tone and finished his introduction,"...Or just "Gwin"."

"Ehehehe..." X giggled at Gwin's attempt to look tough. "Nice to meet you both! Call me X for now... Still trying to remember my old name." X faces Cross signaling him to introduce himself.

"Cross." He smiled, acknowledging the two new faces.

Elma spoke up to add on towards her familiarity with Gwin and Irina, saying, "The three of us were in the Coalition forces together- specifically, the Special Operations Heavy Armor Training Unit... aka the "Skelleton Crew". I was a colonel and Irina a lieutenant- Gwin was a more recent recruit." She folds her arms as she continued more on their history, "Course, I keep telling them we don't need those old ranks anymore now that we're here."

Irina interrupted Elma and tells her, "You're still "colonel" to me, ma'am. No reorg will ever change that. And that's not about chain of command, either. It's about respect. You've earned it."

Sarcastically, Gwin grins ands adds, "And the award for best ass-kiss goes to..."

Instantly, Irina crosses her arms and frowns at Gwin. Gwin faces away from her gaze, feeling his spine chill to his core. X couldn't help but chuckle at their bickering, and Cross could only shake his head in disappointment.

Elma unfolded her arms and continues, telling the two, "Well, I'd remind you both the "ma'am"s aren't necessary if I thought you'd listen..."

Irina and Gwin glance at each other, signaling that their time is up. Irina addressed the matter and salutes to Elma with Gwin following her gesture. "All right, ma'am- we should be getting back to work. Until next time, Colonel."

After saluting, Irina and Gwin begin to walk in the opposite direction that Elma, Cross, and X came from. Elma faces Cross and X and tells them, "Right- we should be going, too. The administrative district isn't far. That's where you'll both be calling home- for now, anyway."

"Great! Let's go, let's go!" X cheerfully chanted, raising her hand up. "Let's go asap so we can look around the city!"

Cross sighed but smiled at X's usual enthusiasm. He asked her, arms crossed, "We can't take a breather in our living quarters for a bit, let alone find out more about our situation, can't we?"

"Nope! We have to see the whole city today! It's a priority! We just have to!"

Elma shook her head and grinned as well, leading the two forward by taking point to lead them towards their destination.

—

"Gwin is such a dork, isn't he?" X asked Cross as they followed right behind Elma who was a few feet ahead of them to lead them to the administrative district. As they walked, they looked all around to see many people working. Individuals were either lifting or carrying heavy containers, taking inventory, or dashing around to have work progress. According to Elma, they were in the industrial district, where most of the heavy work and construction takes place.

"He has to watch where his mouth is running, or else Irina will certainly punish him for it. Though it reminds me, his running mouth reminds me a certain someone who is standing right next to me..." Cross muttered in a sarcastic manner with a smirk across his face.

"Hey! T-Then... Irina being somewhat uptight reminds me of a certain someone who is standing right next to me...!" X retorted, also in a sarcastic manner.

"Touche."

"Hah, no comeba-" X was interrupted by a loud explosion that echoed to her right. Alarmed by the loud noise, Elma, Cross, and X looked up to the sky to their right, the source of the explosion. A large object was flying low quickly, and it zoomed above the party 30 feet above of them, but the force and speed of the object flying was so great that the three had to shield themselves with their arms from the wind. As the wind died down, the three lowered their arms and continued to watch the object fly in a circle as if it was trying to find a safe place to land.

Cross and X noticed the features of the object. It was in a humanoid shape, with a head, limbs, and torso, and from the back was wings sprouting out of it. "What is that...?" Cross mutters in a low voice. X was fascinated by the flying object. "A robot? Woahhh...!" She gasped in awe.

The machine that flew disappeared from Cross and X's sights as it went far off ahead, and a loud crashing sound was heard. Not long after, Cross and X heard the gradually increasing loud noise of a vehicle coming from behind to their left. The vehicle passes by and zooms forward, heading towards the source of the crash. Cross and X caught a glimpse of a driver. _"A girl...?"_ Cross was dumbfounded at the fact that a girl that looked about only the age of 12 was driving in a large vehicle in such high speeds. She short black hair wearing a white and black vest of sorts with long gloves. There was a red pin on her hair near her bangs. X was more impressed at the idea that the girl could drive, and she was astounded by such a feat.

The vehicle makes a sharp turn to the left and disappears from sight. Immediately, Elma begins to pick up her pace as if to follow the girl who was driving. Cross and X follow right by her, matching her speed.

Not long after, the three arrive to see the girl who disembarked from the vehicle examining the large robot. Cross and X see the girl now. She wasn't very tall and stood the height up to X's neck and in fact had two red hairpins on her hair. She had brown shorts also with boots and blue leggings. A big man wearing bulky blue armor from top to bottom removes his helmet and tosses it in the ground furiously, yelling, "Dammit!" The man had short black hair with a bit of sideburns. He rubbed his arm against his face to remove sweat that built up.

The girl who was kneeling stood up as she looked at a device of sorts that displayed a blue screen and scratched her head with her left hand. "Hmm..." She begins to walk around the robot in examination.

The big man jumped from the robot and landed on the ground with both feet. He began to talk to the girl, saying, "Look, I know what exhaust smells like and it was exhaust from the cockpit. Just check the duct work, would ya?" He crosses his arms as he made the request.

"Oh, I'm checking. I seriously doubt-" She stopped as she notice something on her portable mechanical device that she was looking at. Staring at the screen, her eyes lit up. "Hey, look at that! The intake/exhaust bypass is reversed. Oh man, it's a good thing I caught that..."

The man was shocked by the girl's information. "You CAUGHT that?! You're the one that cleared me to fly!"

"Everything okay? It's not like you to flub a flight check, Lin. Good thing you had a rugged pilot like Doug at the controls."

Lin and Doug turn around to face the source of the voice. She turns off and puts away the device on her hand in the process. She saw Elma and two very unfamiliar people standing to her right.

Lin dashed towards Elma and asked with anticipation, "Oh, hey, Elma! How'd it go out there?" She faced at Cross and X. "And... would this be two of the you-know-whos?" Elma only nods to answer her question.

The girl's face lightens up. "Coooool... I'm Lin Lee Koo- mechanic and top all-around fix it gal for BLADE."

"Hi! Hi!" X waved at the girl with both hands. "Call me X! It's so great to meet you!"

Cross nods at Lin and added to the introductions, "I'm Cross. It's a pleasure."

Lin waved back happily, especially towards X. "Nice to meet ya, X and Cross!"

Curious to no end, X had to ask immediately, "It's so cool for you to be working at a young age! How old are you? 14? That's amazing...!" Cross lifted his eyebrow at X's guesses, let alone the fact that Lin was a mechanic at such a young age. He didn't say anything though.

Elma answers X's question on her behalf, "She's 13. And I know. She looks young, and she is young. But trust me- she's one of our top talents."

Doug interrupts Elma's explanation, adding, "Most of the time, that is. Most of the time."

Lin was a bit stung by that comment, but shrugs it off. She faces Elma and asked her, "Annnyway, you guys heading back to the barracks?"

"Yeah. Why do you ask?"

"As long as you're here, why don't I take you on the transport? It's a great way to see the city- I'll give you the grand tour."

Cross notices X's eyes grow big in anticipation and excitement. He sighed quietly, but smiled. Killing two birds with one stone by getting a tour and heading towards their destination was perfect.

"That sounds like a great idea."

Lin faces Doug and tells him, "All right, Doug. I think that'll be all for today. You can clean up here and dock the Skell."

Shocked, Doug was exasperated and groaned, "What?!"

"Don't mind the exhaust. I'll take care of it tomorrow." Lin begins to walk towards Cross, X, and Elma and leads the way torwards the transport. The other three follow right behind. Doug, astonished by the load he was dumped, yells, "Don't mind it?! ...Wait, why am I cleaning up your mess in the first place?! Lin? Lin!"

Ignoring Doug's complaints, Lin looks up to face X and Cross to her right and asks them as they approach the transport ship, "So, what do you think of NLA so far?"

X was the first to answer. "Amaaazinngg! I cannot believe how great this place looks! And apparently it doesn't seem likes it's completed. I can't wait to see the end result!"

Cross nods to her reply. "It's great. After resting up, I'll gladly stroll around with X here to tour the place."

"Great! I'll show you everything! And maybe get some good food after? How's that?" Lin claps her hands in anticipation.

"Yes! Yes!" X was now clapping in rapid succession.

As they approached the transporter, Cross could only sigh and chuckle at X and Lin's merry conversation. He didn't want to dampen their mood from his monotone and not as excited demeanor, so he remained silent. Elma notices his silence and taps him in the shoulder. He faces her. "Hm?"

"How about I send you to the training area? I'm sure you'd like to find your weapon of choice and adapt to it."

"I'd like that. Thank you."

Elma nods and grinned at the response. _"Let's see what you can truly do..."_

—

The entire time, Lin and X were talking back and forth with all of the features of the five districts, possible plans to do on their free time, and people Lin had to introduce X to. As they conversed, Elma was giving a short history of the development of NLA's construction and progress to Cross, who listened thoroughly.

After leaving the transport ship, the four gathered at the center of the helipad area of the administrative district. Lin concludes her informative tour, saying, "Enjoy your stay in the administrative district, and thank you for flying Lin Lee Airlines."

"Thank you for explaining everything to us!" X replied, nudging Cross at his abdomen to do the same.

"Thanks." He quietly adds.

"Hehe!"

Elma grabs the other three party members' attention and tells them, "Let's get over to the barracks. Then I should file my report. They'll be eager to hear the details on how I found you both, I'm sure."

"Well then. We better not keep them waiting. The barracks are pretty close, actually- they're set up juuust behind the giant BLADE tower here." Lin explains as everyone glanced at the largest building of the city.

She continued, motioning to a pathway around the tower, "That road there wraps around the left side and leads right to it."

Elma finalizes the plan to Cross and X, saying, "We'll pass through Armory Alley, but let's not get sidetracked, okay? We can check it out later."

Elma and Lin lead the way towards the barracks. Passing through Armory Alley, which was lined with stalls and electronic panels to buy items, made X gape and brighten her mood even further. "Oooh... Shopping...!" Cross shakes his head no. "Not now. Remember, Elma will show us this location later. Then we can inquire whether to make transactions or not."

"Yeah yeah... no need to tell me again..."

Up ahead, Lin glimpses the two new recruits speaking to each other, X making a large grin on her face while Cross having a somewhat monotone face with no expression at all. She turned to Elma and asks her, "You know, those two are literal opposites, and they get along so well!"

"Given that they both are literally in the same situation, they could empathize with each other. As for their personalities blending in so well, that's a total mystery to me..."

"Hmmm. Oh well. At least the barracks will be more livelier around!"

Cross and X saw Elma and Lin approaching a silver building with a yellow door as they left Armory Alley a bit to their right. _"So that's the barracks. X and I would be living here from now on... Hm..."_ Cross said to himself. X was tightening her fist, excited for her new home and the look of the interior.

Now standing at the entrance, Elma introduces the location, saying, "And here we are- the BLADE barracks. Consider yourselves as our guests until we finished getting you registered. Feel free to come and go as you please."

"There's a registration process?" Cross asked Elma.

Elma was about to answer until a deep voice answers on her behalf. "I think I can answer that one."

The four face the man who answered Cross. A late middle-aged man who looked much older than the director general, he had short black hair and wore a sophisticated black and silver long sleeved uniform. The two amnesiacs noticed that the man had a scar cutting through the left side of his mouth downwards towards his chin. X glanced at Cross and back at the man again, noticing the small similarity, though Cross' scar was on the right side of his face at at the edge of his lips instead.

"So... you two must be the latest rescues."

"Secretary Nagi!" Lin calls out to the man as she walks a few paces to approach him.

"Ms. Koo. Chipper as always, I see." Nagi commented on the lively 13 year old.

"What can I say? Pep is my middle name."

"I ran into Doug Barrett on the way here and he didn't seem quite so upbeat. Anything about today's flight I should know?"

"N-No...? Nothing to worry about."

Elma and Cross raise an eyebrow on Lin's white lie. X, however, sighed to herself, knowing that she might get the secretary upset for telling the truth. Thankfully, Nagi bought it.

"Good. Be sure it stays that way." He faced Elma this time, acknowledging her latest accomplishment. "More importantly, Elma- you found two others. Excellent work out there."

"Just doing my job, Mr. Secretary."

"Now, as for officially registering our new citizens here..."

"Why don't we talk inside?" Elma suggested. "There's a lot of ground to cover- it could take some time."

"Ah yes- of course." Nagi nods and faces the two new individuals again. "Forgive me- you must be weary from the stasis and your journey back to us."

Cross and X shake their heads. X replied, "Not exactly, but Cross here might be."

"Hey...!" Cross nudged X on her left arm, frowning a bit. "That was unnecessary, X...!" He whispered to her angrily. X simply made a cocky smirk on her face.

"I apologize to you both." He motions Elma and Lin. "Please- after you."

After a nod, Elma and Lin lead Cross, X, and Nagi into the barracks.

—

Nagi, Elma, Lin, Cross, and X stood around the mission debriefing area of the barracks, with Lin at one end of the hologram table, Cross, X, and Elma standing in order to her right, and Nagi to her left of the table. Earlier before, X simply stood at the center of the barracks, astounded by the fancy decorum of the area. She and Lin were talking back and forth about the facilities and even more future plans later to spend time together during their free time. Cross was too occupied on what Nagi was about to tell him and X about their situation, so he didn't join the two girls and simply followed Elma and Nagi to the briefing room. Elma had to remind X and Lin of their main objective, so they quickly followed her.

After some silence, Nagi began the introduction, "Allow me to formally introduce myself: My name is Kentaro Nagi. You may remember me as captain of the White Whale, but now I serve as Secretary of Defense here for New LA. The provisional government has charged me with keeping the peace, so all military and police affairs fall under my jurisdiction."

Elma adds to his introduction, saying, "He's also my superior officer. And he'd be an excellent person to talk to when you're ready to start looking for work."

Nagi asked Elma, "What about a job right here with BLADE? They both seem capable."

Elma nodded to his suggestion, but replied, "Let's give it a little more time- at least until they know enough to make an informed decision." She glances at Cross and X and back to Nagi, explaining further, "They both seem to be suffering from some form of memory loss."

Nagi's eyes slightly widened with the new information that Elma gave him. "Memory loss... From the stasis?"

Elma nods, glancing at the two amnesiacs and back to Nagi, answering, "Cross could barely remember his name. X couldn't remember her name at all and is currently using it as a temporary name- and nothing at all about what happened to Earth or the White Whale."

X looked down at the table in front of her in disappointment, muttering, "Sorry... I really wish we remembered."

"Same here." Cross seconded her apology.

"It is all right." Nagi reassured them. "I see... Though, come to think of it, the entire lot of us have only been on this planet for what, two months? It shouldn't take very long to get caught up."

"My thoughts exactly." Elma replied to Nagi. She turns to Cross and X, motioning their turn to speak up for any information. "Well then... where should we begin?"

X looks to her left to face Cross. She knew this was the moment Cross had been waiting for since he woke up. He had been keeping to himself most of the time, and every time she looked at him, he seemed in deep thought. Finally, he'd get some of the answers he'd been looking for. "Got anything?"

"Mm hm." Cross nods to X and now turns his attention to Nagi. "I'd like to inquire about our situation: how did we all end up on Mira?"

Nagi answers him, saying, "It all started at the end, two years ago. The end of Earth- the casualty of a battle between two hyper-advanced alien civilizations. Their technologies and weapons were... beyond our comprehension. We were like infants... Naked, powerless... The Earth was reduced to ash... and blown away."

Elma adds to the story, saying, "I still wonder if I hadn't been there... if maybe all of this could have somehow been avoided..."

"No one can know that, Elma. What we DO know is, without you, there'd have been no Project Exodus, and no escape, for any of us. Did it go perfectly? No. But we are here, and we are alive. We survived."

Cross glances at Elma, whose eyes were closed for a bit. As he continued to look at her, something was bothering him at the back of his mind. _"Elma was involved in this project of evacuation...? She was so integral to the point where her lack of intervention would have lead to human extinction? Who is she then...?"_

 _"..."_ Cross was at a loss for words. X glanced at him, who was looking a bit suspiciously at Elma with his eyes slightly narrowed at her. "...Cross?"

Cross snapped out of his thoughts and shook his head a bit, replying, "Sorry about that... Was just thinking."

"You're always doing that..." She mutters very quietly to the point where Cross didn't even hear it.

After more silence, Nagi continues his explanation.

"So yes, Project Exodus. Once we learned the Earth might be threatened, we needed a plan to preserve all her various lifeforms. That plan was the Earthlife Colonization Project. Otherwise known as Project Exodus. Those of us who escaped on the White Whale spend over two years wandering in space. Two hard years. But we clung to our mission: find a habitable planet, and settle there. We had no idea how long it would take... Or... that the decision would eventually be made for us. The xenoforms found us again, and... well, it wasn't a happy reunion. Earth wasn't enough. They wanted humanity destroyed. For better and for worse, we were close to planet Mira when we lost control of the White Whale. Inertia and gravity took it from there. The ship had take way too much damage to survive entering the atmosphere intact. We had no choice: we channeled all the power we had left to soft-land the Habitat."

Elma looked as if she was in a daze hearing their story all over again. She continued Nagi's narration: "Once the dust cleared, we set to work transforming it into its current state. Searching for survivors, establishing BLADE, installing the provisional government... Basically making it a sustainable city."

Cross was satisfied with the given information. He had one other question in mind, which was something that Nagi mentioned and suggested a few minutes before. "BLADE... could you clarify and give us information about it?" He faces X, who seemed interested as she was about to open her mouth to ask a question about it too.

"Yeah... Elma told us about jobs here in this city. So working for BLADE?" X asked Nagi.

"BLADE is an acronym." Nagi begins his answer. ""Builders of a Legacy After the Destruction of Earth." Quite fitting, I think. It's a relatively new organization. Up there in space, we had plenty of provisions, and a crew trained to handle the limited amount of situations we might encounter in our travels... But, of course, all that changed after we lost most of our ship and came crashing down here on Mira. We needed food. Water. Search and rescue teams. Surveyors. Police... The list goes on and on. It was too much for the provisional government to handle on its own. So BLADE was born.

"The idea was to have one central organization with different disciplines to fill these various roles. Its core was pulled from the coalition military, so it's mostly former soldiers. But... fighting isn't our most important duty. Right now, we have a single, top priority that supercedes all others: The search for-and recovery of- the Lifehold. Take a look at this."

After a press of a button, a large blue transparent display appeared on the hologram table before the five individuals. It looked like a tower with spires sticking out on four sides at the top. Additionally, more frames appeared to show specs of the tower in small text boxes.

"Woah..." X gasps.

"The White Whale was designed to carry an exceedingly large number of passengers, all of them held in stasis..." Elma began to explain. "All housed in a structure called the Lifehold. This is a complete schematic of that facility. Only essential personnel were conscious and active for the journey from Earth. The flight crew, maintenance engineers... And of course, some military, so we could defend ourselves if necessary. But the vast majority were in the Lifehold- ARE in the Lifehold. With any luck, they're all still there, in stasis, waiting to be rescued. But, there's a problem... We now know the Lifehold broke apart along with the rest of the ship when we came down on Mira. What we don't know is exactly where all the pieces landed. Not very comforting, I know. BLADE's top priority now is locating the missing units."

After the explanation, the hologram image of the Lifehold and the various text boxes disappeared.

The last question left Cross had in mind... Cross opened his mouth to speak, but X interrupted him. He quickly closed it as X read his mind as she asked, "Now we know what to do, especially after hearing about how we got here and that Lifehold. So... Cross and I want to ask about registration. How do we do that?"

Cross was impressed on how X figured him out as the edge of his lips was lifted. _"Excited, aren't we...?"_

Nagi nodded. "Ah-yes, all citizens of NLA are required to register their name, age, and occupation. We also ask you to report any personal assets, and take a short survey regarding your current state of health. All purely as a precaution- I'm sure you understand. As caretakers of humanity's survival, we all have certain responsibilities."

Lin, who was silent most of the time, finally spoke up and continues Nagi's explanation. Cross and X face the girl to give their attention to her as she added, "And hey- it's not all bad. Registering gets you access to all kinds of public services."

Nagi continues, "In any case. I'm sure this is all a lot to digest. You'll be wanting some time." He faces Lin. "Ms. Koo- Even I'M tired of hearing myself speak. Why don't you take our guests out for some air? Perhaps a tour of the administrative district."

"Yes, sir!" Lin faces the rest of the party and announced to them, "C'mon, we'll keep this briefing brief."

—

Elma, Lin, Cross, and X stood outside of the barracks after the suggestion of Nagi to tour them the administrative district. Stopping their tracks, Elma turns around and tells the rest of the party, "You know, it's not every day we're authorized to let a civilian tour the administrative district."

Lin chimes in, saying, "Yeah. Nagi must really, REALLY want them both to join BLADE."

Elma nods to Lin's observation. She caught onto it too, along with Cross and X. "The AD is a bit different from the other districts. It's got everything a BLADE would need, all in one place, without any extra fluff."

When Elma finished her description, the four hear loud, pacing sounds. They turn around to see a large robot walking by the street in front of them. It was just like the robot Doug was piloting, but had a slightly different appearance. Lin's jaw dropped and X's eyes widened in anticipation and excitement.

"That robot...!" X gleamed.

"Get... a load... of that Skell... Even the way they WALK is sooo coooool... Oh yeah, work it baby... Mmm-mmm-mmm..." Lin gasped, extremely happy of seeing the robot move.

X raised her right hand up. "You and I are literally the same person! Those robots are so cool!"

Lin turns around and high fives X after leaping up to reach her a bit. "Now THIS girl gets it!"

Cross lifted his eyebrows at the overreaction of the two girls and sighed, lightly slapping his face with his right hand and slid it down his face, stopping at his mouth and shaking his head a bit. Elma laughed lightly and Cross' reaction of the two. "Yes. This is a common reaction Lin has towards the Skells. Now with X here interested in them, the noise level will be twice as big."

"I can feel it already... I have to brace myself and get ready to cover my ears every time one passes by." He mutters jokingly, removing his hand from his face. But he had to wonder about them also about their uses. _"I assume they are used for combat and construction and transport..."_

Lin asks, "Aren't they just the coolest?! Just... everything about them!"

Cross had to place his left hand on his hip, waiting to hear the longwinded description of them, and X was fully focused on Lin. Elma remained quiet as she knew this was Lin's forte. "The lasers, the force fields, the bipedal AND vehicular transformations?! You ever have that dream where you're inside one, and it's just transforming over and over? And over?"

Cross looked at Lin blankly. "Um... I never dreamed before, let alone remember any if I did. I was in stasis, remember?" He glances at X. "Same for her too."

"True... Buuuut... now I can think of that dream when I sleep and I'll dream about it!" X cheerfully answers Lin.

"Great! Yeaaah, you know what I'm talkin' about. Actually, I uh... I don't normally show this to people, but I've been working on some Skell fan fiction..."

X's eyes lightened up at the words Skell fan fiction. Her hype about skells went past through the roof, and now she also gets to see Lin's creativity. Cross only lifted his eyebrows in curiosity. Aside from the questionable subject of writing, he didn't know Lin had a creative side to herself in writing. He notices Elma at the corner of his eye with her eyes closed as if she was a bit impatient.

"Hold on, I'll just pull it up here, one sec..." Lin retrieves the same small device that she used to scan Doug's skell earlier from her right pocket and was about to turn it on until she was interrupted.

"Lin." Elma calls out to her, stopping her from their deviating current objective.

"Oh... Uh, right... Sorry." She places the device back in her pocket.

Elma however, begins to explain Cross and X about skells, as she noticed Cross' bit of interest and X's overwhelming excitement for it. "Originally, Skells were developed as a defensive measure- to counter potential alien threats. It wasn't enough to save Earth, though- We were outnumbered and outgunned. Still... just look around you. New LA has gone from basically nothing to this in just two short months. We could never have come so far so fast without Skell technology. I'd love to get you both into one to see for yourself, but it's not that simple."

Lin chimes in Elma's explanation, saying, "Well yeah, duh. For one thing, only BLADEs are allowed to pilot Skells, and even then, you need a license."

"These aren't toys we're talking about- they're complex machines with powerful weapons. And they're a precious resource- we only have so many of them to go around. So yes, as you might imagine, the certification process is a fairly rigorous one."

"I'm sure you're thinking "Where do I sign up for the test?!"- but it's not that simple. They choose you, not the other way around. You can't just walk in the front door and volunteer."

Elma crosses her arms. "There is some criteria. The details are largely hidden, but basically, HQ only allows the cream of the crop to take the test- BLADEs who go above and beyond in their duties, and for the people of New LA in general."

Lin, more eager than before, asked the two, "So whattya say? If you become a BLADE and work hard, I'm sure it'll only be a matter of time before they tap you on the shoulder."

"Speaking of work, that reminds me... Why don't we check out the Mission Control board first? That's where we take on our assignments." Elma suggested.

"Good call. Let's head on over." Lin adds, already making her way to the console that was right across from their location. Elma follows right behind her.

X follows right behind the two, asking Cross in the process, "Come on, let's go. And... I'm sure you know my answer about joining BLADE, right?"

Cross smiled and nodded to her question. "Of course. Your adrenaline and attitude says it all."

—

For about fifteen minutes, Lin and Elma toured Cross and X around the administrative district. Starting from the Mission Control board, to the Scout console, to Armory Alley, and to BLADE tower, they gave a brief introduction to each of their uses. As usual, X and Lin were speaking back and forth about their uses with Elma chiming in here and there with Cross silently listening and nodding to the explanations. After the tour, they returned the barracks interior.

Lin was taking the lead, and as she saw Nagi sitting in the lounge, she calls out, "Honey, we're home!"

Nagi humored her and replied in a monotone voice, "Yes, very amusing."

Lin approaches the kitchen counter as Elma joins Nagi in the lounge. Cross and X approach the bar near the kitchen where Lin was standing to examine the area.

"Who wants a fresh cup of tea?"

"Thank you, Ms. Koo, but I can't stay long. I just wanted to pass along a request from your commanding officer."

Elma walked towards the couch across from Nagi and asked him, "Commander Vandham? Hmm... does it have anything to do with our new arrivals?" She sits down on the couch.

"Correct. He stopped by while you were out on your tour. He said he'll come back, but that I shouldn't wait to ask you."

"Heh. Here we go. I bet I can guess..."

"You probably can. He wants to fast-track our new friends here for BLADE duty with a training assignment. "What in the hell are we waitin' for?!" ...As he put it."

Cross and X turn around to face Nagi after that very out of character tone and impression Nagi just presented. X chuckled to herself while Cross was surprised at the impression. He was also getting chills about who this commander was.

"The Commander does have a way with words." Elma commented. Lin added, "Makes even my pitch sound smooth."

Nagi continued, "I explained about memory issues, but he didn't see it as a problem. And to be honest, given our current need for BLADE recruits, I can't say I entirely disagree."

Cross and X approach the couch that Elma was sitting on, now fully focusing on what Nagi was leading them on towards. Elma replies to Nagi, saying, "Hey, it's not me you need to convince. BLADE service is voluntary, remember?"

"Of course. And I would never force or coerce anyone." He faces the two. "Well, Cross and X? What do you say? Can we count on you both to do your parts?"

X immediately answered without hesitation. "Yes! I'd love to join BLADE! I'm all in!"

Cross stared dead in Nagi's eye silently. He nodded to him. "I accept. I'll join BLADE as well."

Nagi replied to their answers proudly, "I knew you'd both make the right choice. Welcome to the organization." He turns to Elma and directed her orders, saying, "Elma, the two can start on your team. You'll begin training immediately."

"Yes, Mr. Secretary. With pleasure."

Lin, excited for Cross and X's new status, excitedly welcomes them, saying, "All right! Welcome to the cool kids' club!"

"Right! I'm so glad to join you all!" X turns around to face Lin and begins to jog around the bar to high five her. As they high fived, Cross watches the two celebrate and smiles. However, soon after, he looks down on his hand, opens and closes it, and forms a frown.

 _"I'll do what I can to help everyone here in New LA. I'll join Elma and X to explore Mira and take out any hostile enemies. But, most of all, I need to find out who I am..."_

* * *

 **A/N: Apologize for super late update. School is not great... been struggling lately and barely have time to write. This was one hell of a long chapter because this is the introduction of main characters, a gift sorta to make up the two month loss. Additionally I was on writer's block at this chapter, but in the meanwhile while I was thinking about it, I began to write on other chapters that were much easier to write about as well as improvise. Hopefully that will at least close in gaps on releases.  
**

 **As I mentioned in the Notes prior to this chapter, I noticed I didn't write about close combat and Cross having knives, so I threw in that small scene there, as well as a conversation about class changes and weapons. The two avatars will have a preference for weapons, as you can see X having one with knives, but they both will have weapon types that they will not be very good with for both long and short range.**

 _ **Considering the huge delays in between chapters and tons of stuff to do cause life stinks, I want to gather opinions on how to advance on this adaption. There will be two options:**_

 **1\. Continue writing the adaption scene to scene just like in the game. I will not leave any story scene out. However, if you are willing to see certain scenes that are far later in the game, don't expect it to be written about anytime soon... (Or year or two in that matter...)**

 **2\. Writing only major scenes in the game, which are mission briefings, pre-boss battles scenes, boss battles, story information scenes, major character development scenes, etc. This option is good for advancing the plot, but that means missing minor character development scenes...**

 **This will occur after chapter 4 for the decisions.**

 **Additionally, I will be skipping on writing the probe installation mission. I know its major point is to introduce tyrants and install probes, but I decided against writing it since tyrants are optional monsters.**

 **However, if you are truly against me skipping on this mission, let me know. I'll gather enough opinions either through PM or reviews to make a final, final decision. However, don't expect this chapter to be released anytime soon if the majority wants the probe mission to be written about.**

 **The next chapter will be about Cross and X choosing divisions, getting new clothes, exploring a little bit of NLA, weapon finalization, and beginning the mission that includes meeting Tatsu. It is already in progress and about half-way completed.**

 **Look in my profile for some sketches of Cross and X on later chapter scenes, lacking dialogue as to avoid spoilers. It is a completely new improvised scene not shown in the game, focusing on their character development.**

 **Please let me know what you think on either private message or review. Until then, I appreciate any reviews and criticism.**


	3. BLADE - New Appearance, New Experience

**Uncontrollable**

Series Summary: A novelization of Xenoblade X with an additional avatar character. Humanity is being hunted down in the far reaches of the universe by unknown alien forces. Landing on planet Mira, their only hope is to find the Lifehold somewhere in the planet. Two amnesiacs, Cross and X, join up with the mysterious Elma to uncover the secrets of Mira as members of BLADE and to save humanity from total annihilation.

 _3\. BLADE - New Appearance, New Experience_

Summary: Now part of BLADE, their appearance will change as they prepare themselves for the upcoming dangers they will face. They will train with a new set of weaponry. They will embark on their first real and treacherous mission.

 **Notes: As I warned, the probe installation mission and the elimination of the first tyrant has been skipped and been summarized in the first few paragraphs to move the story along. The majority of this chapter are completely original scenes, emphasizing on the two avatar characters, but the end will follow the story once again. Because of this, the scenes of finishing the probe installation mission and starting the mission that recruits Tatsu will be separated as opposed to a continuous series scenes as shown in the game.**

* * *

"Whew... what a beastie...!" X muttered, wiping the sweat that piled on her forehead as she stared at the corpse of the large insectoid beast that she, Cross, Elma, and Lin killed about ten minutes earlier. She was lying on the grass with all four limbs sprawled out and her eyes were closed. X was in such a lax position that even her assault rifle and knife were simply lying next to her on the ground, and a surprise attack would catch her completely off guard.

"What did I tell you about being overconfident...?" A familiar voice echoed in X's ears. It was obvious on who it was: he was the only male in the total party of four X was a part of.

"Argh... stop being right all the time, Cross... it's getting d-u-l-l duuuuullll..." She mockingly groans as she opens her eyes to see him towering over her, arms crossed and smiling.

"Then you should surprise me and prove me wrong next time. Here." The young man knelt down and offered his right hand to the girl palm upwards. "Elma and Lin are waiting for you especially to get up and get moving. We have to report back."

X raises her right hand as well and the two hold hands. With a gentle but strong tug, Cross made X sit up and stand up straight, and she was completely caught off guard by his strength. _"Geez... lower the testosterone, will ya?"_ X joked in her head.

As the two begin to follow Lin and Elma who were about 3 yards ahead of them, X looked up in the sky and tells Cross aloud, "Those tyrant things are no pushover... it really does take it out on all four of us to really work together, huh? And good call about those legs... I didn't notice that!"

The insectoid tyrant was quite large, over 20 feet tall on four legs. Even with Lin to distract the enemy, Elma hitting the monster from behind and Cross and X flanking the sides of the beast, the monster was very resilient as it barely flinched from any attacks the four threw at it. However, Cross noticed the legs of the insect grew weak after each attack, and advised the party to focus on attack one of its legs at a time. In doing so, eventually the leg that was being attack gave out and was severely injured, weakening the attacks of the beast and even made it easier to topple and attack it as it was defenseless. It was rinse and repeat with each leg and it grew weaker with each appendage being destroyed. Eventually, the giant insect was killed, and no severe injuries were reported.

"R-Right. Thanks..." Cross mutters, scratching his head a little as he avoided a bit of eye contact from X.

"No problem!" She begins tug at Cross' left arm. "Come on! Before Elma scolds us for like the 100th time! We have to catch up with them!"

"I hear you, I hear you..." Cross mutters, now hastening his pace to catch up with X, Elma, and Lin.

—

Lin was first to dash through the barracks and head to the debriefing room. As soon as she entered, she spots a big, tall burly man standing before Nagi.

"Commander Vandham!"

"Well now, look what the cat dragged in..." The buffed man mutters as he crosses his arms and watches Elma, Cross, and X walk in and stand in their respective positions in the debriefing room.

Cross and X were surprised by the commander's looks. Towering Nagi, he had a big forehead and have short blonde hair with a big mustache. He had a large tattoo design on that covered his left arm. He was wearing a grey tank-top of sorts and green pants and black boots. Cross surmised that this guy could easily make a guy cry from a bit of scolding from his intimidating looks. X didn't seem to be too intimidated, strangely. In fact, she was more intrigued and interested as opposed to Cross, who felt his throat tighten a bit. She had a small smile at the corner of her lips... _"If she manages to get on his good side and be close friends with him... Goodness..."_

"Sorry we missed you last time- we could have come to meet you at HQ, you know." Elma apologizes to Nagi.

Nagi replies to Elma, saying, "Indeed, I suggested as much, twice."

Commander Vandham adds, "As we know how much I enjoy being told what to do." He glances at Cross and X. "Anyway, I hear you two tangled with a tyrant WAY out of your league. On a training mission, no less."

Cross was bracing himself for an earful of yelling, so he closed his lips tightly and even closed his eyes slightly.

"That was reckless. And goddamn magnificent."

X's eyes lightened up and she grinned widely. "T-Thank you so much, Commander sir!"

"W-Woah there. No need for thanks. You totally earned it. You too." Commander Vandham nods to Cross, who opened his eyes fully after his comment.

"Thank you, Commander..." Cross replies quietly with a slight bow.

"Don't be so uptight. Like I told your lady friend here, you earned it."

"Mm... Understood..."

After the praise from the Commander himself, Elma begins to ask him, "Say Commander, to what do we owe the pleasure of your visit here today?"

"Well, I can't just ask Nagi to do everything for me- I'd be out of a job."

Nagi asks Commander Vandham, "Hey, I delivered you the two new recruits, didn't I?"

"Yeah, yeah. You won the bet. Don't worry about it, all right? I'll settle up with you later- you know I'm good for it."

"The bet?" Elma asks, skeptical of the two higher ups. This was something new: she never thought Vandham and especially Nagi would agree on such a thing. Even Cross and X, who simply met Nagi hours earlier and recently Vandham, would put up with a wager.

Nagi with the ever serious expression avoids the subject and tells the two, "I'm sure I'm needed elsewhere. If you'll excuse me, Commander." He excuses himself and proceeds to leave the debriefing room.

As he walks out, Lin says aloud, "Well, that wasn't obvious at all."

Elma smirks, and replies to her, "Heh. Look at you two. I swear, you're like two children excited about a new toy." She glances at Lin and Commander Vandham.

Commander Vandham tells Elma, "Look who's talking. I don't recall ever seeing you file a request to personally train two rescues before?"

"Is that so odd?"

"It is before we'd even asked them to become BLADEs, Little Miss Stick in the Rear."

Cross and X glance quietly at Elma, who seemed to have not caught onto Commander Vandham's insult. She raises her arms in confusion and shrugging off the seemingly negative title. "Usually, I ask when I don't get your slang expression, but something tells me to just let that one go."

"Enough about that. Where are your manners, anyway? I still haven't been introduced to our new recruits here."

X raises her hand and waves it slightly. "Hello! I'm X! It's a temporary name until I remember my real one."

Commander Vandham had a large grin streak across his face from X's introduction. "Haha! Your name's like a codename for a deadly secret agent no one would suspect! I like that, little lady."

"Thanks!"

Cross had to sigh quietly, astounded by how X could easily communicate with anyone, even with a scary, brawny-looking Commander of theirs, let alone how she could address him so casually.

"And you?" Commander Vandham eyes on Cross, who was mostly silent the entire time.

"My name is Cross, sir." He bows down slightly again. "It's a pleasure to meet you in person."

"How interesting... Looking forward to what you'll bring to the table, kid."

"Y-Yes sir..."

Lin chimes in for the introductions. She begins to explain, saying, "Commander Vandham is BLADE's top officer."

"In a past life, I was Chief Engineer on the White Whale. Same idea, basically- someone has a problem, I fix it. You follow?"

X nods. "I got it!"

Cross, however, remains silent and nods only.

"...Not much for conversation, are ya, kid? Literal opposite of the little lady here."

X elbows Cross on his left arm using her right arm gently and tells Commander Vandham, "Oh... Cross could talk here and there. He's more of a listener. And he's just a bit spooked by you a bit."

Cross frowned and growled under his breath. He turns to his left and whispers angrily, "X...! Please stop putting words on my mouth...! And stop making false assumptions...!"

"Oh it's not like you'll say it up front...!" X replies angrily too, but she was clearly saying this aloud that Elma, Lin and the commander heard it. Lin was giggling at their bickering as Elma sighed and shook her head.

Commander Vandham was now laughing. A rare sight that even caught Lin and Elma off guard. "Hahaha! You got him there, little lady!"

X grinned widely while Cross sighed. _"Damn it, X..."_

Getting sidetracked, Elma had to change the subject, now asking Commander Vandham, "So you haven't told us why you're here. From the look of things, I'm guessing this isn't a social call."

"You don't think?"

"No, so let's cut the crap and get down to business."

Lin, Cross, and X all stared at Elma with surprise with her response. Moreso with Cross. _"Elma is definitely not the type to speak with such vernacular... It doesn't fit her but it's amusing and interesting..."_

Commander Vandham laughs again, his arms crossed and his eyes widened at the sudden response. "Hah! Sounds like you're learning my expressions just fine, Elma. Anyway, we first need Chatty Cathy and Sunshine here to choose a division and pull an assignment."

Before Cross could even begin to open his mouth to ask about divisions, X immediately jumped the gun and asks, "An assignment? Wow, we can jump right in? What's the details?"

Astounded by the rush, Commander Vandham had to reassure the time was coming and he tells X, "Whoa there, itchy-trigger! I know you're just chaffin' at the bit to run out there and grab the world by its tail, but you need to choose a division first. Once that's all hashed out, we can get into detail about what your first assignment's gonna be."

Elma begins to drop in on the explanation, explaining to the new recruits, "Pretty much everyone in New LA works for BLADE, in one of several different fields. Helping to explore Mira, or to maintain order in the city, or- well you remember Nagi's speech, right?"

The screen behind Elma that is also the right of Cross and X, to the left of Vandham, and in front of Lin began to light up, listing eight names and symbols that appear above the name.

"There are eight different fields in all, and each one has its own branch within BLADE. Officially, they're called "divisions". Naturally, you'll both want to choose one that best suits your personality and your talents."

"Let's start with the Pathfinders." Commander Vandham begins his explanation of the divisions. The screen changes to the image of the Pathfinders. "Pathfinders' number one responsibility... is planting data probes- like you did on your training mission. It may not be the sexiest job, but important? You bet your ass it's important... We've only been on Mira two months- we don't know jack about this place. The more probes we install, the faster we can get our bearings here and give ourselves a fighting chance."

Elma adds, "We've already detailed how important it is we expand the FrontierNav network ASAP. So for the time being, I'll just remind you of the highlights. It helps us keep BLADEs safe, it helps us keep the city safe, and most important of all, it's the key to located the missing parts of the Lifehold and recovering the rest of the human race."

The screen changes again to show the next division. Commander Vandham starts explaining again. "Okay, next up- Interceptors. You met Akulov and Evans, right? Irina and Gwin? This is their division. Interceptors have one main duty: protect New LA and everyone in it from the wildlife here on Mira. Right now, this is probably our busiest division. Interceptors ride shotgun for the research eggheads, they escort VIPs, and they help any other idiots who get caught up with their pants down."

Elma explains the next division, the screen changing from the Interceptors to a new one. "Next are the Harriers. Remember Doug Barrett? The Skell pilot conducting the test flight with Lin? He's part of the Harriers. If you think of the Interceptors as defense, Harriers would be New LA's offense. They specialize in preemptive strikes on clear and obvious threats. But ONLY on clear and obvious threats- they're not meant to go out and just blast on any indigen that moves."

As alternating, the new screen changes with Vandham explaining the next division. "Then you got your Reclaimers. These guys are in charge of finding the other pieces of the White Whale. Among other things, that is... including anything of ours left behind after a battle. Skell debris, weapons, personal effects... It can get morbid, frankly, but it's gotta be done. Until we're up and running here on Mira and have this place completely figured out, everything we brought from earth needs to be treated like it's irreplaceable. Also, the search for the Lifehold- that's mostly on the Reclaimers."

"Next- Curators. Curators are the first to scout ahead to unexplored territory, bringing back whatever they can get their hands on: fruits, bugs, sticks, and stones- you name it. It's not all picking berries, though- being a Curator also means being the first to encounter unknown indigens."

"Next- ah, right. Prospectors. Prospectors do... well, prospectin'. They poke around, looking for minerals, resources and what not- things we need for everyday life here. We packed all the essentials we could on the White Whale, but that won't last forever. We need to be able to replenish our water and fuel if we want to survive. And sooner or later, we're gonna have to figure out how to replace things from scratch- from the socket of a Skell's knee joint, right down to the frying pan in Lin's kitchen. Without these guys bustin' their butts, we'd have no future to speak of."

"Next up: Outfitters. All of our ground gear and Skell weaponry is developed in conjunction with private arms manufacturers , or AMs. Outfitters are BLADE's way of supporting these AMs. They'll seek out anything that might inspire new weapon ideas, and even assist with testing new prototypes."

"Finally, the Mediators. These are the folks who keep everything hunky-dory with Jon and Joan Q Public. Any problems a civvy has, they come to the Mediators. Fight with your neighbor? Mediators. Lost cat? Mediators. It's not a division for everyone. You need to be a jack of all trades and a people person. Someone with my charming personality? Probably not the best Mediator. But if you got what it takes, it's a clutch role, keeping things cool in the home front."

A total of eight. Elma concludes the explanation of the divisions, saying and later asking, "All right, so, I think that's all eight divisions. Any idea what you'd like to join? Don't fret about it too much- whichever you choose, you still have a lot of freedom in how you operate. Mediators can still get out there and mix it up, hunt indigens, whatever. And if a Harrier wants to take a break and settle an argument, that's there prerogative, too. To be honest? Even though it's sort of frowned upon, you can actually change your division whenever you like. So there's really no reason to stress out about this. All right, you ready to choose?"

"Of course!" X replied, her grin widening in anticipation to say her choice.

Cross only nods and answers quietly. "Yes. I'm ready as well."

Even Commander Vandham was at the edge of his seat. "Yeah, and...? We're on pins and needles here."

X nods her head in affirmation and declares aloud, "I'm going to join the Mediators!" A wide grin streaks across her face. "Obviously my personality fits perfectly! I can get along with pretty much everyone! And I love helping other people out! Sooooo... easy choice!"

"Haha! I guessed right!" Lin clapped her hands.

"Woahh, really?! I'm that easy to read, huh?" X asks. She also nudges Cross in the arm. "You guessed that too, right, smarty pants?"

Cross sighed and nods. "Yes. It suits you, perfectly. My second choices for you were Interceptors and Pathfinders."

"Wow! You're spot on! They were my second choices! Hmm... I'm going to guess yours, but you should say it aloud too. What are you joining?"

Cross takes a deep breath and answers, "I'll be joining the Reclaimers. The Lifehold is extremely vital to our survival here on Mira. We also need to help out the others who are trapped within it as soon as possible. With the threat of indigens and time, it's important that we make haste to find its whereabouts and retrieve it as soon as possible." He looks down on his fist for a second and squeezes it hard. _"Hopefully in the process, I can find out about my past as well..."_

"Oh... darn. I was wrong..." X mutters. "I thought you'd pick Curators and even Prospectors."

"I was debating on that, yes... You were close, X."

Elma nods at their decisions. "Then it's settled for you both?"

Simultaneously, the two nod. "Yes." "Yup!"

"All right! Thank God that's over." Commander Vandham sighs with relief. "By the power invested in me, yadda yadda: You're both officially BLADEs."

"Congrats, and welcome." Elma compliments the two.

Lin adds, "I know you both are gonna do great."

"Thank you all!" X clasped her hands together and smiles brightly. "It's an honor to be a part of BLADE!"

"Yes. Thanks." Cross nods as well.

Elma glances at Commander Vandham and asks him, "Before we get into the mission, I'd like for these two to get acquainted with new armor and weaponry. I promised them at least they could try out the different weapons we have available here, especially Cross."

Commander Vandham raises an eyebrow and nods afterwards. "Well... makes sense. New armor's good too. Get used to what you're gonna wear out in the field."

Elma turns to the two and tells them, "All right, I gave you both your communicators earlier. As I mentioned before, they are registered to your names. Keep them with you at all times. They also double as a wallet of sorts, so you use them in Armory Alley to buy anything you need. Lin and I will wait for you both here to change, then we can head out to the industrial district to try out weapons."

"Yes! Got it!" X excitedly replies. She was already hastily power walking and she tugs Cross' left arm. "Come on, come on! New clothes! And weapons too!" She begins to pull him with such force that even Cross was astounded by her strength as she dragged him out of the debriefing room and out of the barracks.

"X...! Stop pulling me...!"

Commander Vandham and Lin laughed as they watched the two jog out of the barracks as Elma sighed. Commander Vandham crosses his arms and tells Elma, "And you'll be babysitting those two. Good luck with that."

Lin grinned as well. "You can count on me to keep them at bay!"

Elma shook her head at their commentary. "This is going to be quite an experience..."

—

"Now this is the moment I've been waiting for...!" X squealed, as she initiated the panel in front of her with her right hand. The screen before her changes into a log in screen.

The two new BLADE recruits stood in front of the armor and weapon shop of Armory Alley. Along the way, heads turned as a loud X excitedly expressed her newfound wealth in credits to shop, with Cross angrily scolding her along the way in whispers to keep the tone down. Even now, the usual workers in Armory Alley watched the duo bicker as they work in amusement.

"Don't throw your credits out the window so quickly, X..." Cross advised in a mutter. _"Why am I wasting my breath with such warnings...? I doubt she's going to listen to me..."_

"Yeah yeah yeah... We worked really hard beating that tyrant up and doing that probe installation mission! Also, the monsters we killed before racked us up some bonus credits. We should be fine!" She replied, using the transparent keyboard panel before her to browse the selection.

The screen prompted her to scan her communicator as a log-in feature, so she held her communicator above the panel and it instantly accepted her information. As she placed it back into her pocket, X saw the new screen that appeared with various menus.

"Weapons... armor... Armor! Hmmm..." She grins, turns to face Cross who was standing to her right, and tells him, "Hey, how about this? Since we're getting new looks, let's make it a surprise for each other, Elma, and Lin! So... no peeking at what I'm getting! To keep yourself busy, go read up some stuff in the communicator like what Elma told us!"

Cross raised an eyebrow at her suggestion. "Why?"

"The suspense and thrill factor! Duh! Come on, pretty please?" She begs, her pitch moving up one octave.

Cross could see her eyes grow bigger. He could feel his cheeks grow warm as he stared into those purple eyes, and he immediately looked upward to avoid eye contact. "Okay... you win..."

"Thanks! Now, no peeking! Go do your nerdy reading!"

"Ngh... it's not nerdy, X..." Cross mutters as he turns around to have his back on X's right to avoid seeing the shop screen.

Cross reaches into his right pocket to retrieve the communicator with his right hand and taps the lower part of the communicator with his thumb. According to Elma before they set off in their mission to install the probe in the outskirts of New LA, the communicator not only acted as a communicator and operated Frontier Nav, but offered many more functions. It could act as a scanner for objects and biometrics, a wallet, an encyclopedia, a note-taking device, and others. The transparent blue screen appears with menus popping up. To the upper right is his name, ID number, and credits. The upper part of the left screen has the time and date. The center of the screen listed many menus in the following order: Frontier Nav, Collectopedia, Social, Communication, Information Archives, Text, Notes, Files, Options.

He confirmed the cursor at Information Archives. The screen changes into a search menu with additional refining features to narrow searches, such as exact, containing, excluding.

"What to search...?" Cross muttered, his left hand covering his mouth as he stared at the screen.

Cross confirms the cursor on the search bar, and a keyboard appears that covers search bar. He begins to enter the word PLANET EARTH. After confirming his search, a new screen appears, showing an image of the planet with a list of physical statistics to the right of the screen. Beneath the image are paragraphs of summarized information. Amazed by the large amounts of information that was presented, he was began to read the wall of text. Strangely, he was reading quickly and was able to process a lot of the information and remember facts.

He begins to read to himself in his mind, saying, _"So that's where we came from... Third planet from the Sun in the Solar System of the Milky Way Galaxy... Was initially the only known planet to support life due its location from the Sun and years of the formation of the oceans and the atmosp-"_

"Waaaaahhhhhhh-! What a bummer!"

Cross was interrupted by a loud groan and complaint behind him. Cross himself groans from the cut of his immersion, lowers his left hand and the communicator that was on his right hand and asks, "What is it? Something wrong?"

"The nice looking clothes and schemes are soooooo pricy! It'll take months or even years for me to save THAT much! Too many zeroes!"

Cross answers as he continues to read down at the text, "We only started recently, X. Give it time. We'll be making a lot once we start completing many missions. The payoff of more difficult missions would be greater too. So, let's just do what we can and save."

As X was confirmed an item on the screen, she faces Cross only to see the back of his head and asks him, "Right... oh, and could you keep it down with the nerdy text? I'll listen to the drabbles later!"

"You told me to read to keep me occupied, X... And this isn't drabble. And I'm not even reading out loud. You're hearing things." Cross replied, frowning a bit.

"Yeah yeah yeah... your turn's coming. Gimme a bit of time." She faces the screen again as she continues her transactions with, her smile growing bigger and bigger by the second.

"..." Cross continues to read on the sea of text before him. He knew that X would take her sweet time, so he decided to immerse himself in the archives, hopefully to get some answers...

—

"What's with Cross and X? They've been in our room for a while now." Lin asks as she wipes her hands with a towel.

"Patience, Lin. They should be out soon. I'm curious, since choices of clothing usually reflects a person's personality."

"Uh… right…" Lin replies, scratching her head as she places the towel to hang on a hook near the sink of the kitchen.

The two BLADE members heard the sound of the door opening faintly. It must be from the sleeping quarters considering its distance. Footsteps was heard, Lin was the first to get a glimpse of who came out first. Her eyes widened a bit from the surprising appearance.

It was Cross who was first to finish changing. Elma and Lin easily concluded that X was very conscious about her presentation, she needed all the time to look into a mirror to make herself presentable in her standards (which is spotless). And the general assumption they had that men mostly don't got too nuts on clothes.

Cross was surprisingly somewhat casual on his choice of clothing, which wronged Elma and Lin's conception of him wearing something formal like Sakuraba Industry's combat vest and pants similar to what Gwin would wear. Matching his hair color, his color scheme of his clothes was mainly purple. He wore a short sleeved white vest with purple outlines that had a hood that reached only up to the lower part of his chest, with a long sleeved purple shirt. The lower part of his shirt was a dark navy blue color. A purple colored circular gem accessory was between the ends of his hood that was on his chest, fastening the hood vest together that lit up and dimmed in intervals, seemingly in sync with Cross' breaths. Gray-black gloves covered his hands, and there seems to be leather on the backs of his hand to protect them. His leg armor was mainly purple and black with some metal plating on the front of his legs, but it seemed to be lightly plated for movement. There was a white set of headphones he wore on his neck.

And the most distinguishing feature upon looking at Cross was a white mask with diagonal blue outlines he wore over his face, covering his nose, mouth, cheeks, and chin. Simply looking at Cross causes forced eye contact with him because of this. This outfit was recognizable to Elma since it was the male variant of the armor she wore: the veyes, vestis, tecta, brog armor of Grenada. It was just in a different color scheme from the standard white and yellow.

Elma had a wide smirk on her face, placing her right hand on her hip. "Looking sharp there. You must be the only male BLADE that wears this armor perfectly." She complimented as Cross walked down the walkway towards the party in the lounge.

Elma laughed in her mind. She quickly remembered the time when she, Irina, and Gwin decided to pick out their clothes when they joined BLADE and Gwin tried this same outfit in the green and white color scheme. Irina and Elma quickly concluded that the look did not fit Gwin at all and advised him not to wear it. Gwin reluctantly heeded their advice. Even among male BLADES, this outfit was barely worn with only a select few men wearing it, let alone them wearing only the vest, shirt, and headphones only. Cross was literally the only BLADE member wearing the full armor set.

Lin approached Cross and examined the new BLADE by looking up and down to examine his whole outfit. "You look really tough! There's a "Don't mess with me or get your butt whipped!" vibe coming out of you! I'm getting the chills…"

Obviously Lin and Elma couldn't see Cross' lips form a smile, but his eyebrows elevating and his pupils were widening a bit that showed his appreciation towards their comments. "I was a bit worried that you both would be a bit weirded out by my look. I guess not then. Thank you both." He replied to both ladies, his voice very slightly muffled beneath the mask. His voice was still clear and audible.

Elma crossed her arms and asks, "What makes you choose this outfit? I'm a bit curious."

"Maybe I did want to stand out a bit so I decided to not wear something similar to what Doug and Gwin wore. Additionally, I thought about my state in battles: I can't wear something too heavy, as it'll lower my agility and mobility. Lastly and embarrassingly, I think I'm a bit self-conscious about the scar on my face… I noticed that you all keep looking at it instead of having eye contact with me..."

Elma lifted her eyebrow in his claim, but she realized that it was true. Every time she looked at Cross whether to talk to him or not, she always found herself looking at the scar cutting through the right side of his mouth. Likewise with Lin.

Lin raises her right hand and points her index finger upwards, touching the side of her right cheek. "Um, maybe we can do something about that…?"

Cross' eyebrows lifted up in confusion. "You can-?" Then his last remaining thought came to stop himself from asking how. "Wait… I don't exactly want to do that…"

"Why not?" Elma asks.

Cross answers as he touches the right side of his face that is being covered by the veyes, replying, "Every time I look in a mirror and see that scar, I feel like it's a hint of what may have happened to me on Earth or in the White Whale prior to landing here on Mira… Possibly a hint of who I once was. Hopefully after seeing it enough times when I look at myself, I'll remember who I am and what happened. I guess it's a bit selfish of me hiding this scar from everyone else but keeping it to myself…"

Elma and Lin looked at each other at his response and they both had their eyes widen a bit. Cross looked at them confused though and he could feel a bit of sweat forming on his forehead. _"...Was my answer strange to them? I was being honest though..."_

Finally, Elma answers him, saying, "No." She shook her head. "It's your scar. Show it or not, do what you'd like."

"I guess-"

"All right!" A cheerful, high pitched cheer interrupts Cross abruptly. Everyone turns around to face the hologram room as it was the source of the familiar voice. "Time for you all to see the new great look of me!"

"Oooh!" Lin gladly claps her hands twice in excitement. "What does X look like?!"

"This'll be quite a treat…" Elma grinned and chuckled.

Cross said nothing, but he swore he felt his heart rate go up a bit.

Footsteps grew louder and then eventually stopped as X revealed her appearance to Cross, Elma, and Lin at the lounge by standing at the border of the hologram room and the lounge before the walkway.

X was also casual in her choice of clothing. The shirt she wore was short sleeved and had two layers: an black undershirt and a dark gold vest-like design that only covered the sides of her torso. The torso armor she wore revealed her chest quite a bit to the point where her black undershirt, which only covered a part of her breast that should be covered downward, was showing. (Cross was definitely trying to keep his eyes away from them, but...) Her neck was covered by the torso armor too, but it was mainly the undershirt she wore that was covering it. She was wearing a set of gloves that covered most of her fingers, with only the nails of the fingers being exposed. Unlike Cross, she didn't wear the full matching set of the armor she wore, which was the medium combat wear of Sakuraba. Instead, she opted to mix and match the leg armor. X was wearing same boots and shorts as Lin was was wearing, but in a different color scheme. The shorts she wore was brown, with leggings mostly being white with the top being orange. The boots she wore matches her shorts, which are also brown with orange outlines. X was wearing two belts, with one being worn across her waist and the other in a diagonal position.

Elma recognized the head armor X was wearing: it was the armor that came with her own armor set. (Elma opted not to wear it though.) The female veyes variant was different as it didn't cover the face but the head itself. It was mostly white and covered the ears and about 30% of the side of the head. X's hair was covering most of the veyes, so the only visible portions of the accessory was the long upper part of the headwear that pointed diagonally backward and upward on each side and a much shorter horizontally aligned portion that covered the ears. The ends of veyes were colored red.

"Sooo…. how do I look?" X asks, raising her arms partially with her palms facing upwards flat after giving the party about five seconds to stare at her.

"WONDERFUL!" Lin exclaims, clapping her hands again, this time faster. "You look gorgeous, X!"

"Stunning. Beautiful and tough looking too." Elma complimented with a smile.

X faced Cross, who had a different reaction from the rest. X couldn't get a definite conclusion as to what Cross might possibly be thinking, but she narrowed it down to two reactions: a look of interest and intrigue or him teasing her. X for sure was leaning towards the conclusion that Cross was doing the latter. His eyes were slightly narrowed but his left eyebrow was raised with the right slightly lowered. Cross was relieved though that she, Elma, and Lin would not see the fact that his cheeks grew hot and red.

Cross sealed his ambiguous reaction towards X's appearance with a chuckle, causing X to frown at him.

"What gives? Seriously? I don't look good at all?" She pressed, marching down towards Cross. As soon as she got near him, she crossed her arms and puffed her cheeks slightly as she tightened her lips.

"You look good but…" Cross chuckled again. "The head armor you are wearing makes you look like… a rodent…"

X immediately unfolded her arms and made fists with both of her hands and she tries to withhold them from punching Cross in the face. "A rodent…?"

Cross took a step back in caution as he noticed X leaning and taking a step forward towards him. He raised both of his hands with palms facing towards X to show he didn't want to start a fist fight with her, though he felt like one would start anyway. "The most visible aspect of the veyes looks like ears…"

Elma sighed in disappointment, shaking her head on how stupid Cross could be in elaborating in pretty much any question that is raised towards him. Lin was giggling on the possibility of X is in punching Cross.

"Then…! You…! You look like…. a creeper! A stalker! A burglar! A creeperstalkerburglar!"

"What?" Cross frowned, his eyes narrowing further in how unnerving X shouted such negative connotations at him as he lowered his hands and closed his fists in frustration. "I'm neither of those...!"

X shook her head. "You look like one though! That mask totally shows it! Plus, are you trying to kill yourself through asphyxiation?"

Cross rolls his eyes. "No, I can breathe just fine, rodent."

"Don't call me that, creeperstalkerburglar!"

Groaning, Elma walks towards the bickering duo and places a hand on each of their shoulders. Cross and X fall silent and to see Elma shaking her head in disappointment. "Enough you two..."

"Sorry..." The two recruits reply in unison quietly.

"And anyways, you have a bit of free time to yourselves but if you'd like, we can start weapon testing in the industrial district."

"Free time? Sweet!" X smirked as she faces Lin. As usual, Cross and Elma were amazed at her quick demeanor change. "Hey, Lin. Mind showing me around the commercial district for a little bit before I go training?"

"Sure!" Lin gives a thumbs up. "What about Cross?"

Cross nods no. "I'll join Elma in the weapon testing. You two should enjoy yourselves in the meantime."

"Okay then! And uh, Elma... The Commander had to tell you something about your reports." Lin asks Elma as she begins to leave the barracks.

"Sure..." Elma follows Lin towards the exit as well.

Soon after, Cross and X were the only two people left in the barracks and they stood at the lounge, staring at each other. X's grin disappears and she begins to frown a bit with her cheeks slightly puffed up. Cross was growing unsettled by sudden change. Who knew that her being upset actually made him anxious? He scratched his head and tells X, "S-Sorry… was just pulling your leg…"

X immediately grinned after that nervous apology and lightly punches Cross on the chest with her left fist, saying, "Haha! Look at you. Seeing you like that is making me upset! Hey, no worries. But… if you do manage to call me that again, I'll keep calling you creeperstalkerburglar."

"Fine, fine…" Cross groans, admitting defeat, but he sighs with relief. "You do look good in your outfit though… It's… cute." He confesses, thankful for the veyes covering his cheeks and mouth for the embarrassing face he was making.

X obviously sees right through him, but she herself was turning red from his compliment, that she had to use her hands to cover her cheeks. "Oh shucks… This is all I can do for now until I get more credits racking in and I thought it was only okay. Thanks... You look pretty good yourself. It actually… suits you. You look tough. And… well…"

X moves in closer to Cross, her right hand suddenly touching his veyes on his left cheek. Cross was growing more nervous as she touched the side of his face indirectly. "…You look really awesome with this on… It brings out your eyes…"

"….X…?"

X removes her hand from Cross' veyes and steps and faces away from him, heading out towards the exit. "…Y-Yeah uh… I gotta go! See you later!" She immediately quickens her pace, leaving the barracks.

Cross touched the side of his mask where X touched it. _"…Wh-What was that about…?"_ He muttered to himself, still red by that strange gesture and compliments. _"That's… not like her…"_

—

"Not bad. This is the weapon type for you. Of all of the other kinds available, this is the only one in which I could say... threw me off guard." Elma commented as she pointed one of her dual swords straight ahead towards Cross as the tip was a couple of feet away from him.

Cross was barely standing straight as he stared at Elma, short of breath and sweating. It didn't help that he was wearing long sleeved clothes and slightly heavy leg armor, let alone a mask over his nose and mouth as he tried to cool down. The adrenaline was fading and he could feel his feet about to give out. In his right hand, Cross gripped onto the javelin tightly using it as support to keep him up. "..." He couldn't even speak as he was trying to regain his composure from the exhaustion and tension.

Elma eyed at the spot in her tecta torso armor in which Cross managed to graze with the weapon: her left shoulder. Of all the other weapon types, he wasn't able to land a single hit on her, though he was close with a longsword. He took advantage of the large range the javelin had to keep distance and defend as well as attempt to hit her. _"It suits him well... I'm sure after some battles, we'll literally be equals... Or he could even surpass me..."_

The two heard footsteps behind them, and soon after, the familiar, high pitched lovely voice of a new recruit was heard.

"Hellooooo! Lin is coming a little later cause Doug called her out! I'm here for the-woah-!" X was interrupted at the sight before her. Elma watches the girl run towards Cross and lowers her blade. She then places both blades on the sheathes are her back.

X dashes over to Cross and places a hand on his left shoulder, asking, "Oh my gosh! Are you hurt again?! Lemme patch you up!"

She was about to ready herself to heal him, but she stops as a left hand holds onto her right. "N-No... Just... need to... rest..." Cross whispered, his voice barely audible from exhaustion, let alone the veyes he wore over his face. His grip on the javelin was slipping.

"Geez... take it easy, lower the weapon and sit down...!" X commanded, placing her hand over Cross' hand on the javelin to loosen up his grip on it.

In doing so, the javelin falls down to the floor on Cross' right while he himself falls into his knees. X uses her arms to soften the impact he had on the ground, as well as provide support as he himself couldn't sit up straight. "Yeah uh... you'll be sitting out for a good hour or so..." X muttered as she wiped the sweat out of Cross' forehead. Cross didn't say anything, but he felt his cheeks grow red as she removed his sweat.

Elma raised her arms out to stretch and sighed, shaking her head from the very slight bit of sweat that she even perspired. "Since Cross will be resting, I think it's time that you try the weapons here, X."

"R-Right... Uh... oh my, where do I start...? But uh, Cross..." She glances at him, still panting as he tried to regain his composure and strength.

"I'll be fine..."

"You sure...?" She asked. X only got a nod as a response. "Okay..."

X removes her grip on Cross carefully, making sure his posture won't give out and he wouldn't simply collapse on the ground. Thankfully he didn't, and so she stands up and faces Elma.

"I'll try your weapon, Elma. Your two swords." X grinned as she made her decision.

Elma smiles and moves her head slightly to her right, pointing towards the direction to the corner of the training area. On the ground at the corner, various weapons were lined up in order: a longsword, shield, dual swords, knife, photon saber, assault rifle, gatling gun, dual guns, sniper rifle, psycho launchers, and a raygun. There was a gap between the dual swords and knife, assuming it is the location of the javelin that Cross borrowed and used to test against Elma.

X approaches the weapons and picks up the two swords that were lying next to each other. She first underestimated its weight and her hands were nearly brought down to the floor as she held onto them. "Woah-!"

She picks them up and stands up, examining the blades. She was moving her right hand around to feel the weight of the blade as it moved. It was slightly heavy, but she knew after some time she would get used to the weight and force of the swings. She then began to move her left hand as well in a horizontal direction as her right hand moved in a vertical direction, swinging the blades. "Hmm... this feels strange..."

Turning around she begins to walk towards Elma as she continued to move her hands the swords around. When X was close to Elma, she stopped and lowered the weapons. "This is going to be weird but I'm excited...!" She squeals, a wide grin appearing on her face.

Elma had to smile at her excitement. She glances at Cross, who was now sitting on the ground as opposed to kneeling, looking up at the two ladies. "You fine resting over there?"

"Y-Yeah... I'll watch you two from here."

"Okay. Let's make some space from him, X." Elma directs X away from Cross by moving yards away closer to the exit of the training area. Eventually they stopped and Elma begins to distance herself from X as she stood in place.

"Dual blades are a bit difficult to use... You tend to deal more damage from attacking the enemy from either behind or its sides. Hence, you'll be relying on having your allies to have enemy's attention." Elma begins to explain. "Before we get into those specs, as usual, you'll need to wield the blades as if they are an extension of your body. It'll be quite different from using the knife since you have two blades, let alone the length and weight of the weapons differing."

"Got it!" X acknowledged Elma's advice. She begins to hold out the two weapons in front of her, the right blade raised higher than the left with the tips of the blades pointed to the sides and the edges forward. "I'll do my best!"

"Good." Elma draws out her own set of blades and points the sword on her right towards X. "Now let's begin!"

—

Lin placed her communicator in her pocket as she approached the training area of the industrial district. It had been about two hours since she last saw Elma and Cross, and about an hour since she saw X. She was called by Doug to do more testing work on the skell, but it ended quickly as it crashed again. As usual, she ditched him to do the dirty work to clean up after receiving the text from Elma to meet with them in the industrial district.

At the entrance, she could see Elma giving standard weapons away to some regular workers in the industrial district. Lin noticed that each were a different kind: a set of dual blades, shield, longsword, rayguns, psycho launchers... "Oh... then it must mean..."

Ahead to her left, she sees Cross and X standing next to each other awfully close, looking dead ahead at a paper target was a large circle and within it smaller circles, each layer a different color from outward to inward: blue, green, yellow, red, with red being in the center and small too. There were bullet holes scattered all over the target, with only 1 hitting the blue area. There was a second target two feet away to the left of the one that the two recruits were standing yards in front of, and it had 6 bullet holes in total: 5 on the red in close proximity to each other and 1 on the yellow. Lin notices X was holding a sniper rifle and aiming right at the target with the 1 bullet hole, and Cross was next to her to position her arms.

"Oooohhh..." She begins to giggle as she approaches the two.

"This is soooo totally not my weapon...!" X groaned as she was trying to center her aim as she stared at the scope of the sniper rifle.

"Well... yes... I personally find the assault rifle more difficult to use..." Cross mutters. He then shakes his head and tells her, "This is different from the rest. You can't go trigger happy on sniper rifles until you have a very steady aim."

"And it's so hard to do that...!" X moaned, her aim towards the center of the target swaying more than usual.

Cross uses his arms and hands to adjust X's grip on the rifle, placing his own hands over her own to guide her. "Here... you also need to relax and focus."

"Yeah..." She mutters, heeding his advice. She surprised herself as she noticed her aim was steadying, and the crosshairs of the rifle were aligning on the red circle.

"Got it?" Cross asks.

"Almost... my aim is almost there...!"

"Good. When you're close, you need to hold your breath. Simply breathing can cause you to miss the vitals."

"Okay... here goes..." X takes a deep breath and to her surprise, her aim was steady. And the crosshairs was dead in the center. Her index finger now closes in on the trigger and with a press, a loud bullet is fired. X was astonished by the recoil as felt the gun jolt backward as she fired. Letting go of her breath, she sees through the scope that her bullet hit the green circle as opposed to the red that she aimed at. It was only a mere few centimeters away from the yellow circle.

Lowering the rifle, she groans again and shakes her head in disappointment. "Dumb gun...!"

Cross shakes his head and places a hand on her shoulder as he saw where the bullet hit. "That's not bad at all. You're getting there. Not to mention that if you're targeting the monsters here on Mira, you're not likely to miss. There's a good amount of species we saw that are large targets..."

"Nahhh... I give. The sniper rifle is so you... I mean look at your target! You hit the center dead-on! If anything, you should be using this!" X complimented, folding the rifle into its compact form and shoving it into Cross' arms. Cross was surprised by the force that X applied while shoving the weapon into his arms that he had to take a step back. _"She really dislikes this weapon, huh..."_

Lin waves and calls out, "Yoo hoo! Cross and X! How are the weapons testing?" She jogs near the two after watching X test the rifle.

X's demeanor immediately changed as her eyes lit up at Lin's appearance. "Lin! Great timing! We totally got our weapons down!"

"Really? Really? What's the scoop?" She asks.

X scratches her head and embarrassingly tells her, "If you saw me just seconds before uh... totally not the sniper rifle. But look!" She points out at Cross' target, which was the target with the 5 bullets hitting the red center. "Cross is totally using it!"

"Woah, so cool... you're pretty sharp out there, Cross!"

"T-Thank you-" Cross was interrupted by X's excitement. She adds, "Yup yup. Cross is also using a javelin. Too bad I missed their little duel, cause it seemed intense with how exhausted Cross looked! And Elma didn't even break a sweat!"

"Don't bring that up..." Cross mutters as he frowns very slightly.

Lin was nodding to X's storytelling, but she had to wonder and ask her, "And what about you? You still sticking with knives as usual?"

X nodded. "Yes! I barely bothered trying the others but I tried all of the other guns except for the dual guns... like the ones Elma uses. Which reminds me-"

Immediately, she begins to sprint towards the direction in which Elma was standing, who was finishing up the weapon trading among the BLADE workers. Lin and She faces to her right as she sees X running towards her, surprised at her fast progress in attempting to try out the sniper rifle.

"I think I can tell from your expression, X... the sniper rifle isn't your type, huh?" She asks.

"Nope..." X groans, shaking her head. "It's totally Cross' weapon for sure. Since I tried out the others... there's only one left: dual guns."

"Right." Elma nods as she removed her own set of guns that were mounted from her back. "Here. Try mine. It's already loaded, and it'll save you some time from using the standard issue."

"Thanks! I'll be right back!" She nods as she holds one machine gun in each hand and runs back towards Lin and Cross.

When she arrived, she darted towards the same target she aimed at for the sniper rifle trial and held to the two guns straight ahead, the same way Elma held them from her observations. Cross and Lin watched X maintain her stance as she stared at the target before her in silence and anticipation.

"Okay!" She calls out as she begins to pull the triggers on the two guns simultaneously.

Loud rounds of gunfire echoed in the room as she fired the two guns. As she held onto the trigger, surprisingly, X maintained holding onto the two guns firmly despite the recoils. Before she knew it, the magazines were empty, and the room falls silent.

Before X could see the results of her aim, Lin beat her to the punch, saying loudly, "Woah, X! That's amazing!"

"Oh my..." Cross muttered in awe, his eyes widening at the results.

X sees her target torn apart with bullet holes, with the yellow circle nearly gone and the red center was about 75% riddled with holes. There were some scattered bullet holes on the green and blue circle, but not much. From this result, X's decision was made.

"WOAH! And that was my first try too! THIS IS IT!" She declares loudly, raising the two guns in the air in triumph. "I'm done! I found my weapons!"

"Right on!" Lin cheered, raising her arms up to celebrate.

Cross and Elma approach the two girls as her results signaled the end of their weapon testing. Elma, amused by X's happiness and accomplishment, laughed lightly. "What a way to end this activity. Now that you two found your preferred weapons, I believe it's time to begin our first mission."

"Yes! And thank you!" X bowed as she handed the two machine guns to Elma.

Elma accepted them and mounted the two weapons in her back. "I can teach you a few skills and attacks on the field itself later, X. Now, we'll return to the barracks to be debriefed. I just got word that the Commander has something for us four to do."

"Whooo, I wonder what the Commander has in store for us... Oh and what to eat after our mission...?" Lin muttered as she began to make her leave from the training area.

"Lin. Wait for us..." Elma raised her hand slightly to call her back over, but she didn't hear her and kept walking. Elma shook her head and pointed at the weapons still on the ground. She tells Cross and X, "If you used up all your credits earlier, you can use these weapons for your first mission."

"Uhh..." X blushed as she touched the right side of the veyes that was covering her right ear. "I uh... kinda blew it off... so I have to use them... oops..."

Cross sighed as he knew he wasted his time advising her earlier. He tells Elma, "I'm saving up so I might as well use them too."

"Very well. I'll wait for you both at the entrance to the facility."

As Elma walked away, the two began to walk towards the three sets of weapons that were laid out in front of them. As they picked them up and mounted the weapons on their backs, Cross complimented X, saying to her, "You're pretty good with the two machine guns. I was surprised on how accurate you were. I'll be honest, I thought you would miss by a mile from the recoil. I'm glad you proved me wrong."

"W-Woah... uh... thanks?" X blushed, rubbing her left cheek gently to cover it up. She quickly realized about his latter comment and frowned, growling, "H-Hey! Wait...! You think I'd miss by a mile?! Meanie!"

X elbowed Cross in the abdomen, but he didn't stagger from the surprise hit. He saw it coming and kept his ground, but was taken aback by the force she applied. "Hey, that was unnecesssa-" X runs off towards the exit of the training area. She was sticking her tongue out and winking at Cross. "But thanks anyway! Last one to Elma is a rotten egg!"

"X...!" Cross groaned, jogging to catch up with the lively girl.

—

Commander Vandham had to immediately chuckle and he saw the new BLADE recruits walk in with their new looks and weapons. Just like Elma, Vandham was astounded on how seemingly intimidating Cross looked in the Grenada light wear outfit that male BLADES could not pull off. "I like them icy look in your eyes, kid. Literally yours can kill."

"Thank you…" Cross nervously replied. Already getting compliments from the seemingly tough Commander was already a big feat, even though he and X only completed one mission.

"And you, little lady... Looks are deceiving. Could use more people like you."

"Thanks, Commander!" X happily replied.

The four stood around in the debriefing table, with everyone in the same positions as they stood when Nagi informed the two new recruits of their situation and joining BLADE. Commander Vandham crosses his arms and begins his debriefing.

"Now for the job- let's get down to the brass tacks. Nelson's team has gone missing. Last contact we had, they were installing a data probe out in eastern Primordia." Vandham unfolds his arms. "Then, nothing."

Elma crossed her own arms as she tried to recall details. "Hmm, Nelson... Pathfinders, right?"

Lin chimes in, guessing on the cause, "Are we talkin' indigens here or what?"

"Your guess is as good as mine. But they did have a Skell with them. You'd think they could hold their own- or at least run away."

Cross could see X's demeanor change slightly. She was no longer enticed by the mission details. Rather, she was frowning a little. He could tell that she was worried about the missing Pathfinder team, considering the fact that Vandham just told them. _"This doesn't sound good... And it makes me anxious to see that that X is getting worried too..."_

Elma nods to Vandham's information. "All right, we're on it. We'll head to their last known location and go from there."

"Report whatever you find ASAP."

"Of course." Elma turns to the remaining three members of her party. "Let's move out."

"Roger that." Lin replies.

"Understood." Cross followed his reply after her.

X's mood changed immediately. "Ready when you are!"

As the four made their way out of the barracks, Commander Vandham crossed his arms and chuckled. _"That little lady is like an older and louder version of Lin... Haha. And there's something about that kid... Hmmm..."_

* * *

 **A/N: Sorry for late update as usual. Though 85% of the chapter is improvised, I was constantly trying to think of ways to execute some scenes.**

 **Cross will not be changing his style of clothes for the rest of the story, so he'll be stuck with the light Grenada wear, at most only the color scheme will change. As for X, her outfit will change after a certain chapter and that will be her main look. Until then, she will maintain the given appearance. Again, if you need to see what they officially look like, check out my profile for sketches, and even glance on the fanfiction image for their appearance.**

 **It may be strange to some of you to show a lack of skill in some weapon types for both characters. Avatars in-game can use all weapon types sure, but to change things up, I limited the weapon classes for the two avatars here to only a few they can use... makes them more believable in my opinion. Likewise with their skill with the weapon of choice too. As much as I would like to make Cross and X instantly badass in javelins/sniper rifles and knives/assault rifles/dual guns respectively, I'd like to think they'd need to build their skills and abilities over time. (And yes, these are the weapon builds I use in-game for them.) Both avatars will develop a new preference for weapons, but the ones presented currently will be their main weapons of choice throughout the story.**

 **Probably my only regret in this chapter is not writing the spars between Elma, Cross, and X as the avatars tried out different weapon types. I must admit that writing battle scenes is the biggest weakness I have, since I'm not very imaginative with fights and whatnot. Plus, it does involve some actual research on how to properly wield them. (I know the game shows the usual attack patterns and all, but there HAS to be some variety in fighting styles and stances, so...) I also want to save up my imagination of fight scenes for the actual story battles so sorry about that.**

 **It may seem that Cross was a bit out of character with his teasing with X, but I'd like to think that he'd have SOME sense of humor, albeit a strange one. (Seriously, hearing him fight in a skell with those puns was the greatest hint of that. Kudos to Robbie Daymond for giving me a laugh on how funny the delivery is. Even moreso with Christina Valenzuela with her battle quotes in general.) When he gets in on a Skell later in the story, I'll definitely have his personality go into a 180 and start acting punny and corny haha... X will be enthusiastic as usual in a Skell, but not as crazy as Cross.**

 **Whew that was long. The next chapter is in early stages of development and will take time to finish. The semester is nearing its end, which means I will definitely not have a lot of time to work on this and the other fanfiction that deals with the affinity/normal missions. As usual though, I will appreciate any reviews and criticism.**


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